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Russia: SEXY LIZARDS which landed FROM SPACE are all DEAD

Copulating cosmo geckos rue re-entry heater cockup

Russia's space agency has made the announcement everyone must have been fearing: after being launched, lost, and recovered, its famed “sex geckos” have all died.

After a premature political announcement of their safe return to Earth, space agency Roscosmos issued a brief statement that the geckos had perished during the landing.

The only survivors of the Photon-M4 satellite's return to earth were the fruit flies also on board.

Agence France-Presse says a mission expert told Interfax that “according to preliminary data it is becoming clear that the geckos froze” because the heating system in their spacecraft failed

The mission had originally garnered global attention not because of its intrinsic scientific interest, but because the space agency lost control of the satellite for a while.

While control was recovered, it wasn't before expat Brit comedian John Oliver made a sensation of the lizards in his HBO show Last Week Tonight. Let's hope his writers are working on a fitting Gecko obituary so the world can heal, then move on. ®

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