The Russian Space Agency has lost communications with a Foton-M satellite sent up last weekend with five geckos from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The satellite was carrying a number of items and equipment for diverse experiments, according to a press release issued by the space agency.
Among the items was a container with living organisms, like fungi and fruit flies, which were supposed to be jettisoned after two months in orbit and land in Russia, along with the geckos.
"The equipment which is working in automatic mode, and in particular the experiment with the geckos is working according to the program," Oleg Voloshin, a spokesman of Russia's Institute of Medico-Biological Problems said in a statement.
Russia's Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos, said the satellite has not responded to mission-control commands.
"We currently receive telemetric data from Foton. However, we cannot transmit commands from the Earth to the satellite so far, that is, we have only one-way connection. Experts are now trying to restore the communication," Russia's space agency said in a press release.
Mission control experts are now trying to restore the communications.
The Foton-M is currently in orbit, revolving around Earth in 92.58 minutes, according to the Mission Control Center.
If they can't restore communications, the geckoes are doomed, as the satellite will most likely crash.
"Another off-nominal situation with a space craft is a sign of a systematic crisis in the industry," Ivan Moiseyev, research chief at the Institute for Space Politics, said to Russian newspaper Izvestia.
The Foton-M4 satellite can stay in orbit for up to four months, which means they have until around November to figure something out.
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