Moscow, Sept. 20 -- The descent module of Russia's Bion-M No. 2 biosatellite carrying live organisms landed safely in the steppes of the Orenburg region after a 30-day mission in space, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said on Friday.
The spacecraft, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Aug. 20, returned to Earth carrying biological samples, including live animals and plants. The organisms will be transported to Moscow for further study.
The Bion-M No. 2 project is designed to study how living organisms endure spaceflight in high-latitude orbits, where the level of cosmic radiation is about one-third higher than that on the International Space Station's orbit.
On board the 6.4-ton satellite were 75 male mice, around 1,500 f...