The Bion-M satellite was launched into orbit

On Wednesday, August 20, at 20:13 Moscow time, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle launched the Bion-M biological satellite No. 2 into low-Earth orbit from Site 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome.

The aim of the project is to study how living organisms survive flight in a high-latitude orbit, where the level of cosmic radiation is a third higher than in the orbit of the International Space Station. The research results will form the basis of methods for protecting and supporting manned space flights, including beyond low Earth orbit.

As the head of the Laboratory of Animal Phenotyping at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) told TASS RAS Alexander Andreev-Andrievsky, the main data pool is planned to be analyzed within a year after the satellite landing.

"Bion" is a series of domestic spacecraft for biological research. In particular, scientists are interested in the effects of radiation and weightlessness on living organisms. The first such device, called Cosmos-605, was launched in 1973. In 2013, the first satellite from the Bion-M series was launched into orbit. Then mice, Mongolian gerbils, geckos, snails, plants and colonies of various microorganisms visited space. 

Source: TASS