While Chris Hadfield hogs all the attention, 53 rodents and 15 lizards have also been part of a scientific expedition outside the atmosphere. The flight was the longest a group of animals have survived on an unmanned space flight.

The experiment was designed to measure the effect of weightlessness and space travel generally on cell structure. The animals will be flown back to Sychov's institute in Moscow where researchers will examine them.

Unfortunately, less than half of the various mice and other rodents survived the flight. The lizards proved more resilient, with all the reptiles landing safely.

The capsule left Earth on April 19th, blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After a month of orbiting almost 600 kilometres above Earth – higher than the orbit of the International Space Station – the craft landed slightly but safely off-course in Orenburg, about 1,200 kilometres away from the Russian capital.

A Russian news station was granted the opportunity to film the capsule and its live payload:

(Photo source)