99 Problems, and a Wild Gecko Space Orgy Is Just One - Facts So Romantic
▻http://nautil.us/blog/99-problems-and-a-wild-gecko-space-orgy-is-just-one
By the time of this launch of the space shuttle Discovery in 2009, NASA knew well the dangers of lightning to spacecraft. At the launch of Apollo 12, in 1969, they were in the dark.NASAOn July 19, Russia launched a satellite designed to study the effects of microgravity on, among other living beings, geckos. The purpose was to observe the geckos—four females and one lucky male—mating, then study how fertilization in microgravity affected the eggs after the satellite returned to Earth. But there was a glitch: The satellite stopped responding to commands. Russia’s orbiting gecko orgy was zooming around the planet out of control. An out-of-control orbiting gecko orgy is probably a first, but in one way is not so surprising: Ever since we started sending machines up into space, strange (...)