Animal Astronauts

By ISS Expedition 28 crew [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

How do you know when you get to space?  Is there a sign saying "Entering Outer Space,"  or "You are now leaving earth's atmosphere?"

No, there's no sign.

But there are a number of  measurements that earthlings use.  Here are several of them:

The United States says that someone who has gone at least 50 miles above the earth is anAstronaut. 

The World Air Sports Federation says outer space starts at 62 miles up.

Both of these are way higher than the Armstrong Line, which is about 12 miles up.  That's the point where your blood will start to boil if you aren't wearing a special pressure suit.  The orange space suits worn by astronauts during launch are pressure suits.

The animals who have gone into space all went far enough to be called astronauts.  Some of them were only in space for a matter of minutes.  Others actually went into orbit around the earth.

Tiny insects called fruit flies were the very first living beings sent into space, way back in 1947. 

They were sent up by the United States, on a V-2 rocket that went 68 miles up.  

And, they survived!

That flight proved to scientists that living things could go out of the earth's atmosphere, and come back alive.  It was a big step towards one day sending men to the moon.

Image Source

The three most famous Russian space dogs were Laika, Belka, and Strelka.  They were among the first live creatures to orbit the earth.  But, others came before them.  

At least two dozen went on sub-orbital flights.  That means they went high enough to be in space, but did not circle the earth.  The first ever to go, Dezik and Tsygan, returned safely.  

And there were still others after them, too.

 Belka, Stelka, and their space capsule, Credit: By Norhil (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0]

 The story of Belka and Strelka has a much happier ending. They were the first dogs to orbit the earth. They spent a whole day in space and came back alive and healthy. That was in 1960.

They had some company on their flight, too. There were some mice and rats, some flies, and a rabbit, all of whom survived.

Later on, Belka even had babies. Pushok was the father of the puppies. One of her six pups, the one named Pushinka, went to America, and was given as a special gift to a little girl named Caroline. That little girl's daddy was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the President of the United States.

VETEROK and UGOLYOK

Meanwhile, there were others making orbital journeys.

Six years after Belka and Stelka's successful mission, it was Veterok and Ugolyok's turn to go. They set a real record by staying in orbit for 22 days, the longest ever by any dogs.

Here are the English translations of the names of the aforementioned Russian Cosmonaut Dogs.

Dezik  (a Russian pet name) 

Tsygan  - Gypsy

Laika - Barker

Belka -  Squirrel

Strelka - Arrow

Pushok - Fluff

Pushinka - Fluffy

Veterok - Light Wind

Ugolyok - Little Piece of Coal

Image Source

 The Americans sent monkeys into space.

In the very beginning, there were six monkeys, all named Albert.  Three others were named 

Patricia, Mike, and Gordo.  Most didn't survive their flights.

Miss Baker with Her Awards, By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Then, in May of 1959, Miss Able and Miss Baker made headlines by surviving true space flight on a Jupiter missle.  They were weightless for nine minutes, and traveled 1500 miles.  They even got their picture on the cover of Life magazine, which was a very big deal at the time.  

Tiny Miss Baker also received special recognition from the ASPCA for Distinguished Service.   

See actual footage of Ham, NASA's Astronaut chimpanzee, who went into space, and returned home safely, way back in 1961.  He was fondly nicknamed the AstroChimp. 

He not only survived his history making journey, but lived a long life afterwards, in the company of other chimps, at the zoo.  

Wonder what he told his friends about his trip?

Ham, the chimpanzee, had an important mission to do.  

Scientists already knew that a living thing could survive a trip into space.  But, they just weren't sure how well their brains and muscles could function during weightlessness.  It was going to be up to a chimpanzee named Ham to show them. 

His trainer taught him get treats by pushing levers. He did it well.  The big test would be if he could manage to do it in zero gravity.  If he could, then maybe human brains and muscles could work when their bodies were weightless, too.

Did he do it?  Yes!

On January 31, 1961, Ham launched from Kennedy Space Center on a Mercury Rocket.  He did everything he was supposed to, only just a little slower, because he was weightless.

Was his mission a success?  Yes, it was!  

It was such a success that  the United States was now ready to send its first human astronaut into space.

Alan Shepard launched aboard a Mercury rocket named Freedom 7 on May 5, just over three months after Ham's flight.   

Image: Ham and His Handler
By NASA [Public domain] 

After Ham, John Glenn became America's first man in space.  But, like Ham's, his flight was a sub-orbital one.

Now, it was time to send a human into orbit.  But first, there was one more important mission for a chimpanzee.   This time, it was Enos who went before a human did.  Just to prove it could be done.

Enos only orbited the earth two times, instead of three, like NASA had planned.  But, he still performed his mission well.

So it was that, thanks to a chimp, NASA was finally ready to put a man into orbit.  And they did.  On January 20, 1962, Lt. Col John Glenn was launched into space from Cape Canaveral on Friendship 7.  He sat inside a capsule atop a Mercury Atlas 5 rocket, like Enos had.    

Glenn made all three of the planned orbits around the earth.  He returned a national hero.  Enos was a big part of the success of the mission.

Although this page is mainly about a few dogs and chimpanzees, as well as the fruit flies who went first, many other insects and animals have flown in rockets and shuttles, and even orbited aboard the international space station.  

NASA tells their story of Animals in Space on this page: