The Russian The Foton-M4 satellite, designed to carry out physiological experiments, was ill fated from the beginning. The mission originally launched on July 19 carrying lizards, fruit flies and a variety of simple organisms. Just 5 days later, the satellite stopped responding to ground control commands.

The malfunction caused days of headlines about Russia’s lost space sex lizards, making them the most famous lizards, outside of science fiction, in recent memory. The lizards were on board Foton-M4 to test the impact of microgravity on the animals sexual behavior.

This information could be incredibly important as humans begin to explore the idea of colonies on the Moon, on Mars and elsewhere.

This weekend the satellite returned to Earth, a few weeks ahead of schedule. According to a spokesman for the Russian space agency, all five lizards froze to death due to equipment failure.

“According to preliminary data, it becomes clear that the geckos are cold. Rather, it was due to the failure of the equipment, ensure the necessary temperature in the box with the animals,” said the unnamed spokesman in a statement.

The condition of the bodies indicates that the animals died a week or more ago and it is unlikely that they ever had sex.

“We can say with confidence that they died at least a week before the landing because their bodies were partly mummified,” an official from Russia’s Institute of Medical and Biological Problems told Itar-Tass news agency.

Other experiments on board the satellite seem to have had better results. Mushrooms and plant seeds were recovered and fruit flies not only survived the mission and successfully reproduced.