Animals in Space

By autumnt

  • Fruit Flies

    Before humans even went into space, fruit flies were tested in a V-2 rocket to see if the potential radiation would cause harm to people. They survived the trip.

  • Albert 2

    Albert 2 is a monkey that went to space after Albert 1 died in a failed mission. He successfully went into space being the first monkey, primate, and mammal to go to space. He sadly died landing because of a failed parachute.

  • Mice

    Mice are frequent visitors to space. Though the first mouse in space had a successful trip, but had a parachute malfunction landing.

  • Laika

    Laika was the first dog to go to space and the first living creature to be launched into Earth's orbit. Laika died from panic and overheating just hours after take off.

  • Marfusha

    Marfusha was the first rabbit to go to space. Marfusha was a grey bunny and survived the trip orbiting the Earth.

  • Humans in Space

    The first human in space was Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

  • Felicette

    Felicette was the first and only cat to go to space and survive. She was a stray cat that lasted a total of 15 minutes
    and 100 miles above Earth.

  • Tortoise

    Two tortoises was sent to outer space to break a record for the deepest animal in space. Again in 1975, a tortoise made the record for the longest animal in space for 90.5 days.

  • Bullfrogs

    NASA sent two American Bullfrogs up to space for one week to orbit Earth. Their goal was to study the bullfrog's otoliths, an organ in the inner ear that senses gravity and helps with movement and balance.

  • Anita and Arabella

    Anita and Arbella are two spiders sent to space in the Skylab 3 mission to see if they could successfully spin a web without gravity. After two days of acclimating, they could. Sadly, they did not survive.

  • Mummichog

    The mummichogs were the first fishes in space. Scientists wanted to see if, like humans, fish get sea sickness. Their aquarium was a small plastic bag with some water in it.

  • Japanese Quail Eggs

    33 Japenese Quail eggs were sent to Mir. After 17 days of incubation, 8 eggs hatched being the first vertebrates to be born in space. There have been many other quail eggs in space after this.

  • Jellyfish

    The first time jellyfish were sent to space was with NASA when they sent 2,478 jellyfish to space. This mission was also the first time 3 female astronauts were on board. They were studied to see how they would adapt to the new environment and as a potential food source for astronauts.

  • Tardigrades

    The tardigrades spent ten days completely exposed to space and were not harmed in any way. Even though Tardigrades are microscopic, they were the first animals to be completely exposed to space. After they were sent multiple times including in 2011 and 2021.

  • Nematodes

    Nematodes, also called roundworms, were sent up to space on a mission with lots of other animals. Coming back to Earth the space shuttle disintegrated and seven people were killed, everything died except the nematodes. They are still being studied on how they survived the extreme conditions and what areas of space will cause harm to humans.