Russian scientists have lost contact with a faulty space capsule carrying an experimental package of geckos and fruit flies.

Geckos are lizards that live in warm climates. Ranging in size from 1.6 cm to 60 cm, geckos can't blink but moisten their eyes by licking it.

The Russia Institute of Medico-Biological problems said the experiment was designed to see how geckos and fruit flies reproduce in microgravity.

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The institute was also trying to figure out weightlessness changes the survival skills of gecko offspring. That was supposed to be the plan, until one of the engines controlling the satellite stopped responding to commands.

The institute was trying to raise the satellite into its correct, higher orbit when it failed to heed command from ground control.

Controllers said other parts of the satellite were working properly, including the life support system that keeps the geckos and flies alive.

Sadly, the geckos will run out of food in just two and a half months. The satellite will then fall out of orbit and return to Earth.

This isn't the first failure of the Foton-M series robotic spacecraft. In 2002, a similar satellite crashed immediately after take due to a rocket engine malfunction.

To date, scientists are still trying to restore communicatiosn with the satellite and its cargo of geckos.