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Laika -

Laika is without a doubt the most famous animal to have undergone space flight, and has since become a sort of martyr for animal rights in scientific experiments. The world fell in love with the Russian mutt picked up off the street, chosen to make history but who would reach a tragic end.

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Laika -

When Laika was sent to space aboard the Russian Sputnik 2 spacecraft, in 1957, bystanders were hopeful for her survival and safe return. Unfortunately, it soon became clear this was never the intention. Laika, the first living being to ever orbit the Earth, was only equipped with enough food and oxygen to last just seven days, yet Sputnik was in orbit for 162 days. In any case, it was discovered that Laika overheated and perished only five hours into her historic flight.

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Fruit flies -

But 10 years before Laika's tragic mission, the first organisms to truly go to space were a group of fruit flies, sent on a V2 rocket in 1947 by NASA to study the effects of radiation on living organisms in space.

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Fruit flies - After being launched from a New Mexico missile range for a flight that lasted just three minutes, barely reaching the outskirts of Earth's atmosphere, the fruit flies were recovered and proved to be unharmed by the radiation.

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Able & Baker -

Two years after Laika's tragedy, NASA gave primate spaceflight a go. Two monkeys, a rhesus monkey known as Able and a squirrel monkey affectionately called Miss Baker, were sent on a 300-mile (over 480-km) suborbital flight and became the first primates to survive spaceflight.

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Able & Baker -

Sadly, Able died shortly after the mission during an operation meant to remove an electrode from her head. Miss Baker, on the other hand, led a full and seemingly happy life long after her journey into space, dying of natural causes at the age of 27 in 1984.

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Belka & Strelka -

In 1960, Soviet Russia tried its hand once more at sending canines into space, this time with a much more humanitarian plan. Belka and Strelka, strays from the street just like Laika before them, were sent up along with 40 mice and two rats.

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Belka & Strelka -

Belka and Strelka's flight only lasted a day, and they were soon safely back on Earth, with no signs of damage or distress. Strelka went on to become a mother of six, and one of her pups, Pushinka, was given as a gift to President John F. Kennedy.

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Ham the Monkey -

In 1961, Ham the Cameroonian chimpanzee paved the way for Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, the first Americans to enter space just a few months later. Ham flew the same route, for the same duration, and in the same spacecraft: a Redstone rocket.

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Ham the Monkey -

Ham not only safely completed his 16-minute suborbital flight, but, unlike animals before him, also operated simple machinery mid-flight, such as flips and switches, to prove primates (and hopefully humans) could concentrate and follow directions under the pressure of spaceflight. Ham was in high spirits when he touched backed down, allegedly teasing and playing with his handlers as soon as he was removed from the spacecraft.

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Albert II -

A less-thought-out mission involving a primate was carried out by NASA in 1947, long before Ham, Able, or Miss Baker. The monkey in question was a macaque named Albert II.

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Albert II -

Albert II's spacecraft's parachute sadly malfunctioned upon his return to Earth, and he didn't survive the landing. All in all, Albert II is one of 32 monkeys that have made the journey to space.

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Félicette -

Although many of the most important firsts of space exploration had already been claimed by other superpowers around the world by 1963, France remained determined to keep their horse, or in this case cat, in the race.

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Félicette -

Félicette survived her 15-minute mission and made it back to the surface safely. Legend has it that another cat, named Felix, was originally scheduled to become the first cat in space, but ran away the night before, giving his understudy the opportunity to make history.

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Mice -

Mice, as the longtime martyr of scientific research, the sometimes unspeakable mistreatment of whom has led to some of humanity's greatest discoveries, have naturally spent their fair share of time in space.

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Mice -

The first mice sent into orbit during the 1950s disintegrated along with their spacecraft upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. More recently, there have been relatively happy rodent residents living on the International Space Station for long periods at a time.

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The Zond 5 tortoises -

By 1968, the Moon was the top priority for the American and Russian space programs. The first organisms to orbit the Earth were two unnamed Russian tortoises, who made history in September 1968.

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The Zond 5 tortoises -

After a smooth orbit around the Moon, the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft ran into trouble upon reentry. Originally meant to land safely in Kazakhstan, the spacecraft veered off course and landed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. But the turtles were safely retrieved, and went on to lead predictably long tortoise lives.

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The Orbiting Frog Otolith -

While numerous frogs have been sent into space, perhaps the most important frog-based mission was NASA's 1970's Orbiting Frog Otolith. The purpose of this mission was to study the effects of space on frogs' inner-ear balance mechanism, called an otolith.

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The Orbiting Frog Otolith -

The two bullfrogs' custom spaceship (pictured) remained in orbit for seven days, and studies found that while there was a significant amount of disorientation at first, the frogs' vestibular systems had returned to normal by the end of the mission.

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Anita and Arabella -

In 1973, a particularly imaginative Massachusetts high school student named Judith Miles wondered how the significantly lower levels of gravity in space would affect a spider's web-weaving abilities. Eventually, the idea reached NASA and the two garden spiders Anita and Arabella were sent into orbit.

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Anita and Arabella -

Once in space, there were certain effects on Anita and Arabella's webs. Primarily, the webbing itself was much thinner and finer than what would be expected on Earth. Apart from that, however, the spiders seemed to have no problem spinning webs in microgravity.

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Mummichog fish -

The same year as Anita and Arabella's mission, a small group of Mummichog fish, along with 50 eggs, were sent to space so that NASA could study the effects of microgravity on organisms that move not just laterally across Earth, but three-dimensionally.

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Mummichog fish -

Once reaching space, there was a period of time where the fish were stuck swimming in circles as opposed to straight lines from point A to point B. After a few days, however, the fish seemed to have successfully recalibrated.

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Newts -

In one of the more intentionally cruel experiments that sent animals into the great beyond, in 1985 the Soviets sent 10 newts to space with portions of their limbs amputated to study the effects that space might have on their novel regenerational abilities.

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Newts -

Surprisingly, not only did the newts retain this incredible ability, but the amphibians were in fact able to regenerate their lost limbs at a markedly quicker rate in space than they were on Earth.

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Tardigrades -

Tardigrades, although microscopic, are some of the most fascinating beings on Earth. Affectionately called sea bears, these organisms have been known to survive the most extreme conditions on the planet, so scientists decided to put them to the ultimate extraterrestrial test.

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Tardigrades -

In 2007, tardigrades made history by becoming the first organisms to survive in outer space as naked as they came. The sea bears floated outside the safety of their research spacecraft for 10 days, and when reexamined back on Earth it was found that 68% of them were still in good health.

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Nematodes -

Nematodes, or roundworms, are certainly no one's favorite animal, but they have always been important members of the scientific community.

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Nematodes -

A group of nematodes was on board the doomed Columbia space shuttle when it disintegrated upon reentry in 2003. While sifting through the wreckage, it was discovered that all of the nematodes had survived the incomprehensible pressure and heat of coming back into the Earth's atmosphere.

Sources: (BBC Wildlife) (Wired) (Time)

See also: The worst accidents in space

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