Russian Space Agency Still Struggling to Regain Control of Gecko-Carrying Satellite

The Russian Space Agency still hasn't been able to gain control of the satellite carrying geckos, fruit flies and other organisms.

The gecko-carrying satellite was launched July 19 from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome. The mission made several orbits of the planet before Roscomos lost contact with the satellite, The Independent reported.

"So, there is only one-way communication," a spokesperson for mission control was quoted as saying by news agency ITAR-Tass, according to The Independent.

There are five geckos on the satellite- four females and one male. The creatures were sent into space to study the effects of weightlessness on the animals' sex lives. The geckos will die within two and half months if the craft's life support system is disrupted, The Guardian reported.

"The biological experiment program started right after the spacecraft was launched. The equipment involved in the biologic experiments is in full working order," assured Oleg Voloshin, spokesman for the Institute of Biomedical Problems, which developed the experiments, according to Russia Today.

Roscomos maintains that the biosatellite operate autonomously.

"We process and analyze the telemetry information we receive from the spacecraft [Foton-M] about its systems functioning. The results of analysis show that all support systems of the satellite are operating in a proper way," the statement on agency's website reads, according to RIA Novosti.

There is no update on the condition of the living creatures aboard the Foton-M4 as it is not equipped to send telemetry data from space.

"The objectives of the Mission Control Center (MCC) do not include health assessment of the living organisms on board the Foton, so the status of geckos, fruit flies, silkworm eggs, mushrooms and seeds of higher plants is unknown to us," a representative of the MCC at Russia's Federal Space Agency told RIA Novosti.