BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, December 25. /TASS/. The Bion-M-2 biosatellite, scheduled for launch on March 25, 2025, will be the first of the five spacecraft manufactured by Russia’s Progress Rocket and Space Center (RSC, part of Roscosmos) that are to be orbited next year, the company’s CEO Dmitry Baranov said.

"We have huge plans for the upcoming year with five spacecraft designed and manufactured by RSC Progress. We will begin the year [by launching] a Bion biosatellite on March 25," Baranov told reporters after the successful launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Resurs-P remote sensing satellite.

The launch vehicle blasted off at 10:45 am Moscow time (7:45 am GMT). It was the two-thousandth for the R-7 family of rockets, which has been in use since May 15, 1957.

The spacecraft, taking 75 mice and 1,500 drosophila flies, as well as plants and microorganisms to space, was initially planned to blast off on September 1, 2024.

The Bion is a series of domestic satellites focused on biological research. In particular, scientists want to study the impact of cosmic radiation and zero gravity on living organisms. Mice are the main object of research under Bion-M projects. A Bion biosatellite is also intended for delivering flies, plants and microorganisms into orbit. The first similar spacecraft named Cosmos-605 was launched in 1973. In 2013, the first spacecraft of the Bion-M series was put into orbit. It delivered mice, Mongolian gerbils, geckos and various colonies of microorganisms into outer space.