Russian Capsule Bion-M returned after a month-long Space Tour with Mice, Newts

A Russian Capsule Bion-M craft that was filled with 45 mice and 15 newts along with other animals returned from a month’s long mission in Orbit on 19 May 2013. The data received on the return of the orbit mission may pave a way ahead for the scientists for a manned flight to Mars.

The study was aimed at determining the way bodies adapted the weightlessness so that the living creatures can survive the extended flights.

Other animals those were sent in the capsule were lizards, snails, small crayfish & fish and gerbils as well as plants and microflora. Less than half of the 45 mice and other animals sent on the mission survived the flight. The capsule was launched on 19 April 2013 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Earlier, research craft that carried animals into the space spent 12 days in orbit in 2007.

Bion-M craft landed in the Orenburg Region about 1,200 kilometres south-east of Moscow with the help of a special parachute system