An orbital cache of frozen human embryos awaiting installation aboard the ESS Mayflower, in preparation for the 1st ever interstellar flight, have all perished due to a malfunction in the storage facility's cryogenic preservation unit.

In a possibly knee-jerk reaction to this shocking news, European Space Administration spokesperson Kendal Hoenigswald blamed the human-hoard's guardian AI (commonly known among the Mayflower's flight crew as "Big Nanny"). The Turing Institute however, were quick to deny this allegation, issuing a statement of rebuttal: "Our TAI-9000 series (Nanny) was only to monitor the Nest's life support systems, she didn't write the control programs - that honour was part of the ESA contract." Lawsuits numbered in 1000s may soon be levelled against whomever is found ultimately accountable for this great tragedy, from many of the celebrities that donated to the seed-ship programme. These included such eminent public figures as current US President Clint Eastwood, and the Nobel prize-winning physicist and gifted young designer of the starship, Professor Franz Idlesöd.

The project's backup depository is, of course, now being readied hastily by Icehouse General's cryo-techs as the Mayflower's replacement bio-cache, but it will takes months to restock the freezers, adding further delay to this oft-postponed mission. The ESA are asking for volunteer donors of all races and nations to come forward and give their best.