A brief history of animals in space

Emily Bills for redOrbit.com – @emilygbills

We know people have gone into space, but we rarely think about our furry friends going into orbit. However, more animals than you know have gone up into space. Here’s a list of 5 out of this world animals and why they were the chosen ones.

1. Rhesus monkeys

On a sunny June day in 1948 in White Sands, New Mexico, a rhesus monkey named Albert was shot up into space aboard a V-2 Blossom. No one really knew about Albert (well, except the astronauts of course,) and so he became sort of an unsung hero. Albert must have done pretty well for himself, because a little more than a year later, Albert II, an Air Force Aeromedical Laboratory monkey, was launched into space. He attained an altitude of 83 miles but unfortunately died on impact.

Albert II must have been enough for 2 monkeys because they skipped Albert III and went straight to launching Albert IV on December 12, 1949. He did a great job and space had no ill effects on him until impact, when he died.

2. Laika the dog

Sending monkeys into space was cool, but it wasn’t until 1957 that the Soviet Union sent the first creature into orbit. In this heartbreaking tale, Laika was sent on this suicide mission with a one-way ticket because we didn’t have the technology to return. She was a stray dog picked up off the streets just a week before launch, chosen for her small size and extremely calm demeanor. Laika’s flight into orbit on Sputnik 2 caused much uproar, but was ultimately seen as a good thing as it helped pave the way for humans to safely travel into space.

3. Félicette the cat

This little black and white kitty was chosen because she was the only cat out of the group that hadn’t put on too much weight. She was also pretty well natured and might have been a Paris street cat before she was an astrocat. On October 18, 1963, French scientists launched Félicette aboard a Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47. She flew for about 15 minutes total, not quite going into orbit, and descended back to Earth via a parachute (how cute does that sound?). Throughout the flight, electrodes implanted in her brain transmitted data, and she was safely recovered immediately after. We bet she had a great trip to meow-ter space.

4. Spiders

You might be wondering, “What the heck can a spider tell us about the environment of space?” However, NASA has studied spiders and their web-spinning habits ever since 1973, when Skylab 3, one of the last Apollo missions, launched into space. On board were two Cross spiders, Arabella and Anita, and astronauts set up tests to study their behaviors in space and how microgravity affected their webs. Recently, NASA sent another pair of spiders into space. Dubbed Gladys and Esmeralda, the golden orb spiders achieved some celebrity status as their tests were caught on video and uploaded to YouTube, were students enjoyed watching things like Esmeralda catching a fruit fly.

5. Pig-tailed monkey

On June 28, 1969, a single male pig-tailed monkey was launched into space aboard Biosatellite III. This guy’s name was Bonnie, and he was supposed to be on a 30-day mission to test the effects that space had on the heart, brain states, electrolyte balance, and metabolic state. After just 9 days, the mission was terminated because Bonnie’s health was rapidly deteriorating, and 8 hours after he landed, Bonnie died of a heart attack.

Although some of these stories are sad, space programs have deemed these animal sacrifices as absolutely necessary for where we are at now in our knowledge of space and how it affects a human body.

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113399194/a-brief-history-of-animals-in-space-052815/