(Image credit: NASA)Īnimals continue to be studied in space today, particularly on the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore set up the Rodent Reseach-1 Hardware aboard the International Space Station. (None of the eight tortoises involved in the experiment were allowed to eat beginning 12 days before launch, and apparently "the main structural changes in the tortoises were caused by starvation," according to NASA.) Other famous animals in space
The Zond 5 tortoises survived the trip, but were dissected after their return to Earth so that scientists could compare them with grounded counterparts for any impact of spaceflight. In 1968, two steppe tortoises became the first animals to fly around the moon as part of the Soviet Zond 5 mission, which was the first successful mission around the moon, according to NASA. The most famous crewmembers on this flight were two other Soviet space dogs, Belka and Strelka, but the flight also carried "a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants," according to NASA. The first mammals to orbit Earth and survive were a host of animals that the Soviet Union launched on a mission called Sputnik 5 on Aug. Laika died in orbit as a re-entry strategy could not be worked out in time for the launch. American reporters dubbed her "Muttnik" as a pun on Sputnik, which the Soviet Union had launched about a month prior and which became the first satellite to reach orbit. The first animal to orbit Earth was Laika, another Soviet dog who launched in 1957. (Image credit: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images) 22, 1960, days after their historic flight. Strelka and Belka at a press conference held on Aug. They were the first mammals successfully recovered from spaceflight. The dogs reached space on July 22, 1951, but did not orbit. The first dogs launched, Tsygan and Dezik, were aboard the R-1 IIIA-1. While the United States chose monkeys to stand in for humans on the earliest flights, the Soviet Union used dogs instead. Albert was anesthetized during flight and implanted with sensors to measure his vital signs but died upon impact at re-entry. The first mammal in space was Albert II, a rhesus monkey launched by NASA who reached an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) on June 14, 1949. In 3 minutes and 10 seconds of flight, the fruit flies reached an altitude of 68 miles. 20, 1947, the United States put fruit flies aboard captured German V-2 rockets to study radiation exposure at high altitudes. The first animals to reach space - not counting any bacteria that may have hitched a ride on previous rockets - were fruit flies. (Image credit: NASA) Animal astronaut firstsĪlthough there is no distinct boundary between the atmosphere and space, an imaginary line about 68 miles (110 kilometers) from the surface, called the Karman line, is usually where scientists say Earth's atmosphere meets outer space. Laika was, however, the first living being to reach orbit around Earth after her launch on Nov. Despite her fame, Laika was not the first animal in space NASA and the Soviet Union had been launching animals for about a decade by the time she flew.
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