DID ANIMALS GO BEFORE HUMANS IN SPACE ??

ANIMALS IN SPACE

 "You all have heard of humans went to outer space and orbited Earth in satellites. In this blog you will come to know about animals who also have orbited our Earth in outer space. You will be amazed to know about these animal in this blog".

                                                                                                                                                                    Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin made the historic first orbit around earth in 1961. He was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the space race. But believe me or not animals had already visited space before Yuri Gagarin. Animals were sent because they were used to collect medical data and test the spacecraft's durability before sending manned mission.Once the survivability of the spaceflights was confirmed, humans began to travel where previously only animals had been. Sixty years ago scientists launched the first living creature on orbit. On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union lofted a dog named "LAIKA" abroad the satellite Sputnik 2. Although Laika's died, merely days after it landed in space, which is still a mystery. Soviet say it was the real hero. In this blog you will come to know about different animal species sent to space which helped astronauts to conduct many experiments.

YURI GAGARIN

  

LAIKA

WHY WERE ANIMALS SENT TO OUTER SPACE?

Animals were sent to outer space to make sure that human astronauts could survive in space or no. One other reason is that astronauts want to know that how body reacts in microgravity.

'LET US KNOW ABOUT SOME MORE ANIMALS SENT TO OUTER SPACE........."

Fruit Fly

The first animals in outer space were "fruit flies" launched in a captured Nazi V2 rocket on Feb 20,1947. The flies reached an altitude of 68 miles(108km) and were recovered alive by a parachute. 

A "mouse" launched on August 15,1950, reached an altitude of 85 miles(137km) but died when the rocket disintegrated due to parachute failure.Several other mice were sent  to space during that year.

Mouse

    "Albert II" became the first "monkey" in space on June 4, 1949.It reached an altitude of 83 miles(134 km), but died on impact when parachute failed. A previous monkey Albert I, died when the V2 rocket failed before reaching peak altitude.Two other monkeys, Albert III and IV, also died when their rockets failed.     

A total of 32 monkeys have flown in space, including rhesus macaues, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and pig-tailed monkeys. Chimpanzees have also flown.

 

Albert II

Albert II

LAIKA

 In 1950's the Soviet Union launched a total of 12 dogs on various   suborbital flights. STRAY DOGS were used since they were   thought to be capable of handling extreme cold.

 LAIKA became the first living being to orbit the Earth on Sputnik   2,Nov 3, 1957. It died several hours into the flight due to stress and heat.

Able and Baker

On May 28,1959, rhesus monkey Able and squirrel monkey Baker became the first successfully return to the Earth after the space flight. The monkeys survived 32 times the pull of Earth's gravity and were weightless for 9 minutes in their 16- minutes flight.   

Rabbit

  July 2, 1959: A Soviet launch carried two dogs and first rabbit into the space.

Belka and Strelka

               

The Soviet Sputnik 5 (Aug 19, 1960) was the first to return animals alive from orbit. The passengers were the dogs Belka and Strelka, plus a two grey rabbit, 42 mice, two rats and fruit flies.

On Jan 31,1961, Ham the chimpanzee flew a Mercury capsule on a sub-orbital trajectory, three month before Alan Shepard's flight. Enos became the first chimp to orbit a Mercury spacecraft on Nov 29, 1961. Both chimps survived their flights. 

Enos

Ham

                         

Felicette

The French launched the first cat into the space on October 18, 1963. Felicette had electrodes implanted in its skin to transmit its condition. It reached the altitude of 100 miles (162 km) and landed safely.

Tortoise

  CHINA launched mice, rats and dogs between 1964       and 1966. In 1968, the Soviet Zond 5 became the first   spacecraft to circle the moon, carrying a payload of   two Russian Tortoises, wine flies, wasps, plants, seeds   and bacteria. Zond 6 flew a similar trajectory later that   year, but the biological specimens were destroyed by a   malfunction on the return trip.

Veterok and Ugolyok 

  Russian space-dogs Veterok and Ugolyok orbited a record 22 days before landing safely on March         16,  1966. their record for longest space flight by dogs still stands.

Insect

In late 1960's, NASA launched a series of biosatellites carrying insects, frog eggs and plants. the third and final biosattelite carried a pig-tailed monkey.

• Spider

• Ever since they visited space; spiders have been in the limelight because they are the only species that could adapt to the interstellar gravity. Two arachnids, called Gladys and Esmeralda by astronaut Cady Coleman, have managed to survive 60 days in space.
• The spiders were a part of the scientific investigation called Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Science Insert-05, or CSI-05. The study involved two spiders in separate habitats on the station, which controls imaging of arachnid's activities.

  After human landed on the moon in 1969, animals in space no longer made the headlines, but spacecraft still carried biological payloads, including rabbits, turtles, insects, spiders, fish jellyfish, amoeba, and algae. In 1973, two female Europian garden Spiders named Arabella and Anita spun webs around the NASA Space station Skylab for 59 days. Biological payloads have also flown on NASA's space shuttle and space stations of both Russia and America.