00:00Now today's Russia Soyuz 2.1b rocket will rise from Kazakhstan carrying with it not astronauts
00:07but an ark of small voiceless passengers. It is being touted as the modern day Noah's ark.
00:16Inside the beyond M2 biosatellite 75 mice, more than a thousand fruit flies, plant seeds,
00:24cell cultures and microorganisms will be sent on a 30-day journey around the earth.
00:30Russia says the mission's purpose is scientific. It is to study how microgravity and cosmic radiation
00:37affect living organisms. It will be in an orbit that exposes the biosatellite to radiation levels
00:46at least 10 times higher, conditions designed to mimic deep space travel. A knowledge deemed vital
00:53for future deep space travel, but behind the clinical language of science lies a grim truth.
01:01Animals are once again being sacrificed to push humanity forward.
01:06Russia's space program has long relied on such sacrifices. The story begins in 1957 with Laika.
01:15It was a stray dog plucked from Moscow's streets and launched aboard Sputnik 2. Laika never returned.
01:22Confined in a small capsule with no hope of rescue, Laika died from heat and oxygen deprivation.
01:29A lonely, preventable death that nonetheless etched its name into history books.
01:35The United States followed soon after with Ham. It was a chimpanzee sent on a suborbital flight in 1961.
01:45Ham endured invasive monitoring, electric shocks for mistakes and severe dehydration.
01:52Though physically survived, its psychological trauma outlived the mission.
01:57In 2019, Israel's Bereshit spacecraft crash-landed on the moon with thousands of tardigrades and
02:07there were tiny resilient water bears on board. Their survival remains unknown, suspended in silence.
02:14Decades later, the pattern remains disturbingly familiar.
02:19Russia's 2013 Bion-N No. 1 mission subjected its animal crew to intense cosmic radiation.
02:27Rodents, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, insects, bacteria, plant and animal cell cultures were on board.
02:37Now, the Bion-N No. 2 bio-satellite will repeat the same ordeal.
02:44For the animals inside, it may be a death sentence.
02:48And yet, their fate rarely makes headlines.
02:52Unlike military service dogs, which at least receive retirement programs,
02:57space animals have no formal exit protocols.
02:59They are tools, discarded when the experiment ends.
03:05The ethical question grows sharper as missions expand.
03:09Outer space law regulates issues like astronaut rescue, satellite registration and liability for damages.
03:17Yet not a single provision protects animals, despite their pivotal role in space history.
03:22Their suffering is invisible in official records.
03:26Their death is an unspoken cost of progress.
03:30As Russia prepares its new Noah's Ark launch,
03:34the scientific community celebrates another step toward human survival beyond Earth.
03:40Yet beneath the triumph lies tragedy,
03:43a reminder that for every breakthrough,
03:45countless small lives are extinguished and unremembered.
03:49Like it did not volunteer,
03:52Han did not raise his hand.
03:53The mice, the flies, and the tiger dates,
03:57they are drafted into humanity's grand ambitions without consent,
04:02their stories ending in obscurity.
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