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First Bion M landed as scheduled

Published: May 18; updated: May 19, 20, 21

After a nearly month-long orbital flight, the descent module of the Russian Bion-M No. 1 satellite carrying animals and biological experiments returned to Earth.

The touchdown took place in southern Russia in the morning local time Sunday and the spacecraft was quickly located by search teams, Russian media reported.

The life-support system onboard Bion-M was designed to function for at least 24 hours to ensure a well-being of all biological objects and experiments onboard. (646)

On May 17, mission control in Korolev announced that the landing of Bion-M No. 1 was scheduled on May 19 at 07:12 Moscow Time near Orenburg (11:12 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 18).

The landing are was expected to be north-northeast of the city of Orenburg, on the border with the Russian republic of Bashkiria.

Related pages: Bion project home page | Flight of Bion-M No. 1 | Bion's follow-on | Bion M No. 1 science program

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