Animals in space

Well you know i have a soft spot for animals, the other day i read about how before human astronauts were sent to space they will use animal first. Earth's first few beings to go into outer space are actually canines and primates, i don't know why but i find that amusing. When we think of space travel we naturally think about the astronauts who underwent intense training to accomplish these feats, who ever thought about the little folks that was used as guinea pigs ?

Ironically the guinea pig was not the first animal to be sent into space

The Monkeys


The first ever monkey to be shot into space is a rhesus monkey by the name of Albert 1. On June 11 1948 this brave little monkey climbed aboard the V2 rocket and blasted into the sky. Sadly he died of suffocation en route so he never actually did make it into space.

The first monkey to actually made it into space goes by the name of Albert 2. His V2 rocket was launched June 14 1949 but sadly monkeys and space just don't mix well and he too died because of impact.

Then there were Albert 3 and Albert 4, the former explosion and the latter impact. Later on Albert 5 was the first one who actually made it back from space but died anyway of parachute failure, and last but not least the last Albert - Albert 6 made it back alive too but died of heat prostration roughly two hours later. Also this !

Finally taking a hint no further NASA monkeys were named Albert

1959 May 28 the two monkeys Able and Miss Baker became the first monkeys to be successfully recovered after returning from space. 1959 June 1 Able died while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode as a result of a reaction to the anesthesia used and also because his name was still a bit too similar to the name 'Albert' (The Albert monkey curse you see). Miss Baker however whose name is quite different from 'Albert' managed to lived to 27 and finally open her eyes for the last time on 1984 November 29.


The Dogs

Possibly the most famous dog sent into space is Laika. Nikita Khrushchev whom i presume is not a dog-lover wanted a repeat of the success of the Sputnik 1 ( the first earth-orbiting satellite ), had his engineers come up with a even greater achievement then Sputnik 1, giving them until November 7 which is roughly 4 weeks for the new Sputnik 2 to be launched - that day being the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution will truly prove that the Soviet is the real lead in the space race. The engineers given the time restraint basically settled on repeating Sputnik 1, but this time with a dog passenger.

;_;

Sad thing is the Sputnik 2 was a one-way-ticket into space. Due to the time constraint the vessel was never designed to be retrieved. Laika was sent to die.

Soviet Scientist doesn't care about dogs

The Sputnik 2 was so cramped that Laika could not turn around, harness and chains ensured that Laika could only sit, stand or lay down. Talk about bad flight food, the vessel was equipped with enough gelatinous food to last 7 days. Sadly Laika could not finish it, but then again the food probably tasted horrible anyway. Conflicting points were made as to how long Laika survived and how she died. Some say she died of scientist but eventually it was revealed that she died 5 - 7 hours in space due to stress and the vessel overheating.

Sputnik 2

Others

European Garden Spider Arabella and Anita. It was noted that spiders took longer to build their web, not surprising as spiders are dependent on their weight and gravity to construct their web. Interestingly the web threads was noticed to be slightly thicker or thinner at various point in contrast to web woven on earth where the thread is equally thick throughout.

Cats Felicette was the first cat to be sent to space, and successfully recovered too ! I'm rather fond of cats so i'm glad to see this one turned out well.

Shoebox Spacesuits for space-faring cats

Further Reading/Sources

http://www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html

http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/felix.html

http://history.nasa.gov/animals.html