MOSCOW, July 18. /ITAR-TASS/. On Saturday, July 19, at 20:50 GTM Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos will launch the Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying a biological space complex Foton-M4, which should take off eight minutes after the carrier departs from rocket launch site Baikonur. There will be ‘passengers’ onboard the satellite: five Gecko lizards and several Drosophilae flies, as well as a number of plant seeds and microbes. The satellite will be placed into a 575 kilometers-high orbit for a two-month period and in 6 days the spacecraft will land in Russia’s Orenburg region.

The lizards are perfect for such experiments, as they provide the scientists with the information regarding bones’ demineralization in space, Roscosmos experts told ITAR-TASS. These reptiles stick to any type of surface thanks to the special microscopic hooks on its legs, so the gravity hardly affects them. Moreover, researchers are able to use geckos in space experiments with minimal food and oxygen supplies due to the lizards’ specific metabolism.

A number of experiments are to be conducted onboard the satellite, therefore 22 sets of scientific instruments, elaborated by the major Russian scientific research companies and weighting up to 850 kilograms, have been placed there.

Satellites Foton and Foton-M were created by Russian Space Center Progress. The first Foton-type spacecraft was put into orbit in 1985. Modern satellites, of course, differ from the previous ones, which used to be supplied with electricity from chemical sources and their flights lasted no longer than 20 days. The new Foton-M4, weighting 6.8 tonnes, works on solar batteries, which contributes greatly to the satellite’s life cycle. Besides that, now it became possible to change the satellite’s orbit parameters with a special mechanism.