First Animals In Space: Astounding Photos And Stories

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Malyshka, one of the first dogs to be rocketed into the atmosphere, poses with her spacesuit. Her rocket wouldn't quite make it into orbit, but it would prove that sending a living creature into space was possible.

USSR, 1957.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

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Laika, the first dog to make into orbit, sitting in her spacecraft, Sputnik 2.

Kazakhstan, USSR. 1957.Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images

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Laika's spacecraft, Sputnik 2, was a small, cramped space. Soviet scientists kept her in increasingly small cages to get her used to claustrophobic conditions.

Kazakhstan, USSR. 1957.Keystone/Getty Images

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Laika is fitted into a spacesuit.

Kazakhstan, USSR. 1957. Serge Plantureux/Corbis via Getty Images

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Laika in the Sputnik 2 Capsule.

Kazakhstan, USSR. 1957.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

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Sputnik 2, before launched into orbit. Shortly after the craft made it into orbit, its thermal insulation tore loose. The spacecraft then overheated, killing Laika.

Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR. November, 3, 1957.Getty Images

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An artist's sketch of Laika inside of Sputnik 2 as it's launched into orbit. Soviet scientists had no plans of recovering her. Laika and her spacecraft disintegrated upon re-entry.

November, 1957.Getty Images

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One year after Laika, Gordo became the first animal launched into space by American scientists.

Gordo managed to survive the trip into orbit, but she did not make it through re-entry. The nose cone parachute malfunctioned, and it crashed back into the earth at 10,000 miles per hour with Gordo inside.Wikimedia Commons

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Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka get ready to recreate Laika's flight. This time, though, there's one big difference -- the scientists plan on bringing these dogs home.

August, 1960.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

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Belka and Strelka were not the only animals on board. They were joined by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, rats, and flies.

November, 1959.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

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An unidentified space dog, possibly one of Belka and Strelka's alternates, wears a space suit and an oxygen mask.

October, 1959.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

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A Soviet space dog returns safely to Earth after completing its flight, circa 1950s.Popperfoto/Getty Images

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After Belka and Strelka made it back safely, America had to catch up.

Here, at a NASA Press Conference, they introduce Able and Baker, the monkeys that will get America's space program back on track.

Florida, May 30, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Able enjoys a snack shortly before being blasted into orbit.

1959.Wikimedia Commons

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In a practice run for her flight, Able is placed in a nosecone.

1959.Wikimedia Commons

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NASA scientists put Able into the capsule for a pre-flight test.

May 18, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Able is strapped into her contour cradle. This will hold her in place during her flight.

1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Able is placed into the spacecraft. The cradle was meant to mimic the way a human being would be held in place, once space travel reached the point that a person could be sent into space.

This photo was taken on May 28, 1959, mere moments before launch.Wikimedia Commons

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Baker, a squirrel monkey, was the smaller of the two space-faring animals. To keep her from moving during her flight, she was kept in a tiny bio-pack couch that restrained her arms.

May 28, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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The Jupiter AM-18 prepares to liftoff. Able and Baker are inside.

If successful, they will become one of the first animals to go into space and return alive. Up to this point, however, NASA had never managed to bring an animal back safely.

NASA. May 28, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Able and Baker make it back alive and become the first primates to survive a trip into space. In this moment, the dream of human spaceflight seemed more real than ever before.

USS Kiowa, May 28, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Able is released from the life support capsule. Although Able made it back to Earth alive, she didn't last long.

Able died on June 1, 1959, days after her trip into space.Wikimedia Commons

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Baker, however, lived on for another 25 years.

Here, people peer into a cage to see Baker, proudly labelled "the first lady in space".NASA

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Months after Baker and Able's flight, a rhesus monkey named Sam followed them into space. Sam was sent to test equipment and the effects of space travel.

December 4, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Sam blasts off into space on the Little Joe 2. Up in space, Sam would experience three minutes of weightlessness before being sent back home.

December 4, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Sam is pulled out of the water by Navy officers aboard the USS Borie.

December 4, 1959.NASA

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The capsule is safely brought aboard.

December 4, 1959.NASA

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Sam makes it back alive.

December 4, 1959.Wikimedia Commons

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Unlike the monkeys that went up before him, Ham the chimp had to operate the craft's controls in space.

January 31, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Ham is placed in his biopack couch. If his flight is successful, NASA will attempt to launch a human being into space for the first time.Wikimedia Commons

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Ham tries out his life support system. To teach him to use controls, Ham practiced pulling a lever whenever he saw a blue light. If he did it it correctly, he would get a banana -- but if he was too late, he got an electric shock.

January 28, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Ham takes off in the MR-2. Once in flight, the capsule lost pressure, but Ham's space suit kept him from getting hurt. He was able to pull the switch during his mission, showing that a person could operate the controls in space.

January 31, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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The crew of the USS Donner rush to recover Ham from the spacecraft.

January 31, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Ham, alive and safe, gets an apple for his hard work.

January 31, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Ham shakes hands with the commander of the USS Donner.

With Ham home safe, NASA will try to recreate his flight with a human being. They intend to make Alan Shepard the first person to fly into space.

January 31, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Soviet space dog Zvezdochka, who was sent into space as a test flight before sending up Yuri Gagarin.

Delays in the NASA project would push Alan Shepard's flight back until May 5, 1961. With Zvezdochka's help, Yuri Gagarin would beat Shepard into orbit and into the history books.

March, 1961.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

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Even after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, scientists continued to experiment with animal space travel.

Enos the chimpanzee was sent into space as a test run before John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

December 18, 1961.Wikimedia Commons

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Soviet Space Dogs Veterok and Ugolyok get ready to travel into space. They would set a record by spending 22 days in orbit. To date, this is still the longest time that dogs have spent in space.

USSR. 1966.Wikimedia Commons

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A spider named Arabella becomes the first to build her web in space.

As human space travel became more common, the purposes of animal space flight changed.

January 1, 1973.Wikimedia Commons

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Animal research continues on the International Space Station. Here, an astronaut handles a frog in space, conducting an experiment on how microgravity affects amphibian development.

1992.NASA

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The Incredible Stories Of The First Animals In Space, In 40 Photos

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Before Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961, there were the animals. The first astronauts to break through Earth's atmosphere had no understanding of what they were doing. They were dogs and monkeys, strapped into rockets and blasted out of the world they knew – often, never to return.

Animals were part of the space race from the very start. Since 1947, when the United States put fruit flies into a Nazi V-2 Rocket and fired them 100km into the air, animals helped in getting humankind into space. They unwittingly risked things that no human would then dare and made the dream of human space travel a reality.

The most famous of these first animals in space by far is Laika, the Soviet space dog. In 1957, the dog became the first animal to enter the Earth's orbit. Laika's voyage had a tragic end – her spacecraft was rushed by scientists who, determined to get into orbit before the Americans, didn't have time to find a way to bring her home. Her life-support systems failed, the spacecraft heated up, and Laika suffocated shortly after making it into space.

Laika, however, was not the only animal to travel into space. Two years later, in 1959, Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka became the first animals to go into orbit and make it back alive.

Some of the most amazing human accomplishments would never have happened without these animals.

Yuri Gagarin didn't make his flight into space until a dog named Zvezdochka ran the mission as a trial. Alan Shepard, the first American in space, didn't make his flight until a chimpanzee named Ham had done it safely. And John Glenn didn't go into orbit until Enos the chimp tried it first.

Animals made some incredible sacrifices for the sake of human progress – although they had no way of knowing what they were doing. They went through incredible conditions and experiences, many of them never coming back alive. Because of them, humanity achieved the unimaginable.

After this look at the first animals in space, check out these vintage photographs from the Apollo missions and from the glory days of NASA.