Russia retrieves mice, newts from space

MOSCOW: A Russian capsule filled with 45 mice and 15 newts along with other small animals returned from a month’s mission in orbit yesterday with data scientists hope will pave the way for a manned flight to Mars. Russian Mission Control said the Bion-M craft landed softly with the help of a special parachute system in the Orenburg Region about 1,200 kms southeast of Moscow. The capsule was also carrying snails and gerbils as well as some plants and microflora. There was no immediate information about how many of the animals survived.
The TsSKB-Progress space research center’s department head Valery Abrashkin said on the day the mission took off in April that the study was aimed at determining how bodies adapt to weightlessness “so that our organisms survive extended flights.” A field research lab has been deployed near where the capsule landed to quickly test the animals’ response to their journey and return to Earth. Scientists said the animals were needed because they were subject to the kinds of experiments that are impossible to be conducted on humans who are currently operating the International Space Station (ISS).