MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax-AVN) - The Bion-M-1 research spacecraft accommodating animal specimens and microorganisms will land in the Orenburg region on the morning of May 19, a space industry representative told Interfax-AVN.
"The bio-craft landing is due at 7 a.m. Moscow time on May 19 in the Orenburg region. The craft is carrying over a hundred living organisms," he said on Monday.
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on April 19, 2013, to propel Bion-M-1 on mission. The craft took aboard 45 mice, 15 geckos, 8 Mongolian gerbils, 20 snails, microorganisms, plant seeds and plants. The Bion-M orbit is at an altitude of 575 kilometers and inclined at 65 degrees.
It was planned at first to start the Bion-M mission in May 2012 but the craft was not ready and the launch was delayed until fall. The autumnal launch was also cancelled because the craft would have landed in a cold season in that case.
A group of mice was replaced a day before the launch because of the death of a subject.
"The mice group has been replaced because of the death of one animal," a Baikonur source told Interfax-AVN.
The mouse died in a conflict in the "mice crew," he said.
"Males are going on the space mission and they are prone to stress and aggression. There was a conflict and one animal died. One group of mice had to be replaced," the source said.
More than 70 experiments will be made in Bion-M during the month-long flight. There are two types of studies. The first group is studying the influence of zero gravity and space flight factors on intracellular changes. The second group is studying the influence of space ionizing emissions on living organisms and tests new methods and means of space dosimetry.