From an astronaut ape to a tortoise in orbit – here are the animals that have been to space

LONG before Neil Armstrong took his first step on the Moon, a range of animals were used to test space flight.

These animals were space pioneers and many of them lost their lives so that humans could explore space like we do today.

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Monkeys, apes, dogs and even tortoises have been to space.

We’ve rounded up some of the animals that were blasted into orbit before humans and some of them may surprise you.

Dogs

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The first animal to orbit Earth was a dog.

The Soviet Union put a number of dogs into space but Laika is probably the most famous.

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She was a stray mongrel puppy in Moscow before she became a cosmonaut.

Researchers liked how calm she was and thought she may cope with in space because she’d coped with being a stray.

Laika’s story is a sad one because she never returned from space.

She was sent up with one meal and a seven-day oxygen supply.

Despite initial claims she survived for seven days, it was later revealed that Laika died in five hours due to overheating.

Tortoises

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The Soviet Union also sent tortoises into space.

In 1968, the tortoises were launched on the Zond 5 spaceship along with worms and soil samples.

They circled the Moon and crash landed into the Indian Ocean after six days.

Amazingly, the tortoises survived their space adventure.

Monkeys and apes

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Over 30 monkeys and apes have been recorded going into space.

One of the most famous was Ham the chimpanzee.

On January 31, 1961, Ham the heroic chimpanzee was launched on a rocket and became the first ape to reach space.

It wasn’t until April of the same year that the first human, Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union, followed in Ham’s footsteps.

Ham took his giant leap for ape kind on a Mercury-Redstone rocket that was launched by Nasa from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The chimpanzee reached an altitude of 157 miles and was on the flight for 16.5 minutes.

He was said to be unharmed by the flight but returned a bit dehydrated.

Cats

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Only one cat has ever been successfully launched into space.

Félicette was a stray cat from Paris and she was launched into space by the French space program.

Her flight took place on October 18, 2963.

She had electrodes put in her brain so that her neurological activity could be monitored.

Félicette survived her 13 minute spaceflight but was killed on purpose two months later for scientific research.

Other animals

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Creatures commonly used in scientific experiments have been to space too.

This includes mice, flies, frogs, spiders and fish.

In 2018, a SpaceX Dragon capsule blasted 20 mice to the International Space Station.

In 2021, SpaceX also sent Hawaiian bobtail squid to the ISS so astronauts could conduct experiments on them.

In other news, Nasa has solved a 30-year-old Jupiter mystery that’s left scientists confused for decades.

Astronomers have observed a red giant star dying in real-time for the first time ever.

And, Nasa has revealed the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk