--- title: Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth description: Russia's attempt to find out how organisms reproduce in space did not end with a bang canonical: https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-01T21:02:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:54.687Z og:title: Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth og:description: Russia's attempt to find out how organisms reproduce in space did not end with a bang og:url: https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36ae12dcfd1b79ba/6986a19ccd804d4316ccc932/200009268-001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Gecko og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth twitter:description: Russia's attempt to find out how organisms reproduce in space did not end with a bang twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36ae12dcfd1b79ba/6986a19ccd804d4316ccc932/200009268-001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Sep 1, 2014 9:02 PM UTC  Day gecko (Phelsuma sp.) against white background, overhead view Day gecko (Phelsuma sp.) against white background, overhead viewGetty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Sep 1, 2014 9:02 PM UTC Russia’s troubled experiment to study how geckos, fruit flies and other organisms reproduce in weightlessness ended with a huge downer: When the Foton M-4 satellite containing the creatures returned to Earth on Monday and the hatch was opened, researchers found that all five geckos had died. “We can’t say yet at which stage of Foton’s space flight it happened,” the [RIA Novosti news agency](http://ria.ru/science/20140901/1022324821.html) quoted a source at the Russian Academy of Sciences as saying. Interfax quoted an unnamed source as saying the geckos [were mummified and may have frozen to death](http://www.interfax.ru/russia/394394). [Read more from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/sad-news-zero-g-sex-study-geckos-are-dead-n193316?cid=par-time-article%5F20140901) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/"},"headline":"Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth","datePublished":"2014-09-01T21:02:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:54.687Z","description":"Russia's attempt to find out how organisms reproduce in space did not end with a bang","url":"https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/","keywords":["Newsfeed","russia","animals","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36ae12dcfd1b79ba/6986a19ccd804d4316ccc932/200009268-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36ae12dcfd1b79ba/6986a19ccd804d4316ccc932/200009268-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gecko","caption":"Gecko","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3249009/russia-gecko-zero-gravity/","name":"Russia's Zero-G Sex Geckos Died Before Returning to Earth"}}]}] ```