|
Soyuz to launch a life-science mission
A Soyuz-2 rocket to orbit the Bion-M No. 2 satellite on a month-long mission studying the effects of micro-gravity and space radiation on various organisms, including small animals, before returning them back to Earth for analysis. Launching 12 years after its predecessor, the second spacecraft in the Bion-M series will fly the over-the-poles radiation-prone orbit sought for the deployment of the new Russian Space Station after the retirement of the ISS.
Previous chapter:
Landing of the Bion-M1 satellite
The Bion-M2 mission at a glance:
| Spacecraft designation |
Bion-M No. 2, 12KSM No. 2 |
| Launch vehicle |
Soyuz-2-1b No. M15000-059 |
| Payload fairing |
17S13 (?) |
| Launch site |
Baikonur, Site 31 |
| Launch date and time |
2025 Aug. 20, 20:13:10 Moscow Time |
| Spacecraft mass |
6,400 kilograms |
| Mission duration |
30 days |
| Landing site |
Russia, Orenburg Region |
| Mission status |
Planned |
The second Bion-M mission
The Bion-M No. 2, a.k.a. Bion M2, project is a follow-on mission to the first Bion-M launch in 2013. In turn, the Bion-M series is a modified version of the Soviet-era life-science satellites deriving directly from the pioneering Vostok spacecraft. Thanks to solar panels and other upgrades, the Bion-M variant can perform missions lasting up to 60 days, before parachuting its ball-shaped pressurized capsule inherited from the Vostok project back to Earth.
As of 2025, the Bion-M2 mission was planned for 30 days in a 300 by 370-kilometer orbit with an inclination 97 degrees toward the Equator, which was expected to be similar to the orbital parameters of the Russian Orbital Station, ROS, where the orbital base would experience up to 30 percent a harsher radiation environment than that present in lower-latitude orbits.
The scientific payload aboard Bion-M2, intended for as many as 22 experiments, was known to include 75 black mice and 1.5 thousand fruit flies, as well as ants, fungi, plant seeds and algae. As before, the Russian Academy of Sciences, RAN, served as the customer for the Bion-M mission and its Institute for Medical and Biological Problems of Spaceflight, IMBP, in Moscow was the prime developer of the science program. Some of the experiments were developed with the participation of high-school students.
Aboard Bion-M2, the scientists at IMBP were planning to monitor the mice live during the mission with special cameras and sensors embedded into the animals in order to compare their behavior and conditions with two control groups on the ground: one group in regular laboratory conditions and one in a copy of the flight containers. For the flight, the mice was placed in groups of three into five 16 by 12-centimeter cylindrical containers, known as BIOS, which were equipped with feeding mechanism delivering water gel and dry food to the animals. The system was designed to keep mice alive during and immediately after the landing.
The return vehicle was also equipped with exterior payloads which would be exposed to the conditions of space during the orbital flight, but protected with thermal covers during the reentry to give scientists pristine samples of materials carrying the effects of space conditions. According to the Vernadsky Institute for Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, it provided 16 tube containers with simulated lunar soil to study its exposure to space radiation.
As of 2018, NASA received 17 submissions from US-based organizations for flying their experiments aboard the second Bion-M under an agreement with Roskosmos, but nothing was heard about the effort after 2022.
Bion-M No. 2 development history
In 2004, the decadal Russian space program, covering a period from 2005 to 2015, approved three Bion-M missions between 2010 and 2016. (623) As of 2009, their launches were planned for 2011, 2013 and 2016. The second mission was expected to fly up to six months, considerably extending the flight duration of the still-planned first 30-day flight.
By June 2011, the second Bion-M launch slipped until 2015 and the flight duration was no longer specified. After the successful return of the first satellite in May 2013, Roskosmos and IMBP officials said that the Russian space program had included a follow-on Bion-M satellite (expected to fly around 2017), along with preliminary plans to conduct experiments with animals on the Science and Power Modules, NEM, of the Russian segment of the ISS.
In June 2013, Ravil Akhmetov, a top official at TsSKB Progress which built the spacecraft, told the ITAR-TASS news agency that Bion-M No. 2 would likely carry fish and mice during its mission between 2015 and 2017. On June 27, at a press-conference dedicated to the activities of TsSKB Progress in the first half of 2013, the head of the company Aleksandr Kirilin said that the launch of the second Bion-M satellite had been scheduled for 2016. Around the same time, there were reports that four Bion-M missions could be conducted by 2020.
During the 40th assembly of the Committee on Space Research, COSPAR, in August 2014, Lev Zeleny, the director of the Space Research Institute, IKI, promised the launch of the second Bion-M satellite in 2019 and the launch of the third satellite around 2022. At the time, one satellite was to be inserted into a 1,000-kilometer orbit and another was to fly 575 kilometers above the Earth.
During the drafting of the new federal program in 2015, which provisioned space funding for the period from 2016 to 2025, there was a budget request for two Bion-M missions to be launched in 2019 and 2022, however, the final version of the program postponed these flights to 2021 and 2025 respectively:
| Millions of rubles |
260.0
|
200.0
|
800.0
|
1,500
|
2,000
|
1,028.0
|
1,088.0
|
2,414.0
|
1,000.0
|
2,000.0
|
12,920.0
|
| Millions of US dollars* |
3.55
|
2.73
|
10.93
|
20.49
|
27.31
|
14.04
|
14.86
|
32.97
|
13.66
|
27.32
|
167.85
|
In reality, the development of only one satellite got underway, but by the end of 2018, its mission had to be postponed until 2023. The third Bion-M satellite was still officially on the books and even envisioned carrying a mice-housing centrifuge for simulating different levels of micro-gravity, but there were practically no reports on the progress toward that mission.
By 2022, the launch of Bion-M No. 2 was promised in 2024, while Bion-M No. 3 was not expected before 2027 or 2028 and even that on the condition of starting the funding of the project in 2023, which was yet to be approved.
As of 2023, the assembly of the second Bion-M was largely completed, even though during that year the launch date was set for no later than July 31, 2024, as the developers tackled last-minute issues.
By May 2024, the Bion-M2 launch date slipped from August to Sept. 1, 2024, and by July 2024, it was re-scheduled for March 2025. In early 2025, the mission was expected on July 20 of that year, but by April, Russian officials admitted the possibility of a delay until September 2025. By June 2025, the launch date slipped to August 25 and, by July, it was advanced to August 20.
Bion-M2 launch campaign
On July 23, 2025, Roskosmos reported that Bion-M No. 2 had been delivered to the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. The loading of experiments with biological organisms was performed on Aug. 16, 2025.
In the meantime, at Site 31, specialists from RKTs Progress were preparing the Soyuz-2-1b rocket. That particular vehicle was a leftover from the 14th mission with OneWeb satellites, which was abruptly cancelled in March 2022, just days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The assembly of the payload section, which included the satellite itself and its payload fairing, was completed at Site 112 in Baikonur on Aug. 18, 2025. The payload section was then transported to the vehicle processing building at Site 31 for integration with the third stage of the Soyuz-2-1b rocket and then with the rest of the launch vehicle.
A Soyuz-1-1b rocket with the Bion-M2 satellite undergoes final integration on the morning of Aug. 19, 2025.
Due to the perishable scientific materials aboard the satellite, which were mandated to launch within 72 hours from the encapsulation of the Bion-M2 inside its payload fairing, the rollout of the rocket from the vehicle assembly building at Site 31 to the launch pad was scheduled within 24 hours from the planned launch, instead of normal two or three days prior to liftoff. The final integration of the rocket was performed on the morning of Aug. 19, 2025, immediately followed by the rollout to the pad during the same day, instead of the traditional morning hours, in order to be ready for launch in the evening hours of Aug. 20, 2025.
Bion-M No. 2 launch profile
A Soyuz-2-1b rocket will lift off from Site 31 in Baikonur on Aug. 20, 2025, at 20:13 Moscow Time (1:13 p.m. EDT).
After a few seconds of vertical ascent under the power of the four boosters of the first stage and the core booster of the second stage, the rocket will head north across Northern Kazakhstan and Russia, aligning its trajectory with a near-polar orbit.
The four strap-on boosters of the first stage should separate around two minutes after liftoff.
The fairing protecting the payload will then split in two halves and separate during the operation of the second stage.
Moments before the second stage completes its firing, the RD-0124 engine of the third stage will begin to fire through the inter-stage lattice structure, which moments later should separate along with the second stage.
Just 1.5 seconds later, the tail section on the third stage will split into three segments and drop off as well.
In the runup to the Bion-M2 launch, the authorities in the Karpinsk District of Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region issued a travel ban from Aug. 18, to Aug. 20, 2025, for an area limited by points 20 kilometers north of town of Kytlym, 10-12 kilometers northwest of Kakvinskie Pechi, 17 kilometers west of Sosnovka, 4-5 kilometers south of the border with the Denezhkin Kamen’ nature reserve and 2-3 kilometers north of Konzhakovsky Gorge.
In previous launches of Resurs-P and CAS-500-1 satellites from Baikonur, these locations were used for dropping the second stage of the Soyuz rocket, the three segments of the aft section of the third stage and the two halves of the payload fairing.
The Bion-M2 satellite is expected to separate from the third stage of the launch vehicle around nine minutes after liftoff from Baikonur.
Orbital flight
The Bion-M2 is expected to orbit the Earth for about a month, before orienting its main propulsion system against the direction of the flight to perform a braking maneuver. The engine firing should slow down the spacecraft to initiate a descent toward the atmosphere, when the Service Module will separate from the Descent Vehicle. The capsule will first perform ballistic entry into the dense atmosphere before deploying a parachute system and touching down in the grasslands of the Orenburg Region in Southern Russia. The search and rescue team, including scientists from IMBP is expected to be on hand at the landing area to recover the live animals and other experiments.
Following the landing, some mice will be dissected at the site, followed by further dissections on the 1st, 5th, 15th and 30th days after the flight to study the effects of space conditions.
Next chapter: Vozvrat-MKA spacecraft
|
|
