Bion 3 was a Bion satellite

Bion (satellite)

The Bion satellites or Bion space program , also named Biocosmos, were a series of Soviet biosatellites. They were part of the Cosmos satellites....

. It was the first joint U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-Soviet biomedical research flight. It carried fourteen experiments prepared by seven countries in all, with participation from scientists in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, and Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

.

It included a centrifuge with revolving and fixed sections in which identical groups of animals, plants, and cells could be compared. The subject animals included white rats and tortoises. The effects of aging on fruit fly livers and plant tissues with grafted cancerous growths were also studied.

Launched from Plesetsk

Plesetsk

Plesetsk is an urban locality Plesetsk is an urban locality Plesetsk is an urban locality (a work settlement and the administrative center of Plesetsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated about northeast of Moscow and south of Arkhangelsk. Municipally, it is the administrative...

 on November 25, 1975, the biosatellite was recovered in Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 on December 15. The mission ended after 19.5 days.

More than 20 different species were flown on the mission, including twenty-five unrestrained male Wistar rats, fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...

), carrot tissues, and 1,000 embryos of the fish Fundulus heteroclitus (a small shallow water minnow). A U.S. radiation dosimeter experiment was also carried out without using biological materials. This was the only Bion mission where the United States provided some of the biological specimens.http://lis.arc.nasa.gov/lis/Programs/Cosmos/overview/Cosmos_Biosat.html

NSSDC ID: 1975-110A http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1975-110A

Launch Date/Time: 1975-11-25 at 14:00:00 UTC

On-orbit Dry Mass: 4000 kg

Other Names:

• Biocosmos 3
• Cosmos 782
• 08450

External links

• http://lis.arc.nasa.gov/lis/Programs/Cosmos/Cosmos_782/Cosmos_782.html