Laika was sent into space in the 1950's

animals in space

a few facts

• The first animals sent into space were fruit flies aboard a U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947
• Monkeys Able and Baker became the first monkeys to survive spaceflight after their 1959 flight.
• On 19 August 1960 Russia launched Sputnik 5 (also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2) which carried the dogs Belka and Strelka, along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants

pictures

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Infinite fact list

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• To date, seven national space programs have flown animals into space: the Soviet Union, the United States, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.
• On 9 March 1961 the Soviet Union launched the Korabl-Sputnik 4 that carried a dog named Chernushka, some mice, frogs and, for the first time into space, a guinea pig. All were successfully recovered.

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• Even China launched mice and rats in 1964 and 1965, and two dogs in 1966
• On 31 January 1961, Ham the Chimp was launched in a Mercury capsule aboard a Redstone rocket. His mission was Mercury-Redstone 2. The chimp had been trained to pull levers to receive rewards of banana pellets and avoid electric shocks

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• The United States launched Biosatellite I in 1966 and Biosatellite I/II in 1967 with fruit flies, parasitic wasps, flour beetles and frog eggs,plants and fungi
• The first two tortoises in space were launched on Zond 5 on 14 September 1968 by the Soviet Union

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• In 1985, the U.S. sent two squirrel monkeys to Space with 24 male albino rats and stick insect eggs.
• Japan launched its first animals, a species of newt, into space on 18 March 1995 to Space.