From monkeys to tiny water bears: Animals in space

The first ever monkey in space, Gordo, in 1958, unfortunately did not survive the flight. Miss Baker and Able (above) were luckier. The squirrel monkey and the rhesus monkey successfully completed their 15-minute mission into space in May, 1959 — nine minutes of which were zero-gravity.

Able and Miss Baker were the first monkeys to return from orbit alive. They were used to test zero-gravity 500 kilometres above the earth. Able died shortly after landing, during an operation. But Miss Baker (above) still had a long life ahead of her — she died in 1984 at the age of 27.

Unlike Miss Baker and Able, the little rhesus monkey Sam (above) did not test zero-gravity. His flight with NASA's Mercury capsule was instead focused on the functionality of the rescue system. Thankfully, Sam survived the flight. As did his female successor, Miss Sam, another rhesus monkey.

Ham was the first chimpanzee in space in 1961. Ham experienced zero gravity for six minutes. His mission was groundbreaking: in the same year, NASA launched staffed space flight with Alan Shepard on board. With his custom-made space suit, Ham provided important insights into how an organism was able to tolerate the conditions of weightlessness

But that's enough monkeys — the Russians had actually already started sending animals into space before that. However, they preferred dogs. As part of the Soviet mission Sputnik 2, Laika (above) was sent into space in 1957. She was the first four-legged animal in space. Sadly she died a few hours after the launch of her rocket.

Despite Laika's death, the Soviet Union continued to send dogs into space — but under better conditions. In 1960, dogs Strelka and Belka were sent into space and brought back alive. Strelka became the first surviving female dog in space, and therefore quite a famous one. In 1961, the daughter of the then US President Kennedy received one of her puppies as a gift.

But – excuse us – dogs were actually not the first animals either. In fact, 10 years before dogs were sent to space, in 1947, fruit flies boarded a rocket. And, of course, the resilient insects survived.

The days of dogs and monkeys in space are (fortunately) over. But NASA and co don't want to do without animals completely. Today, however, the animals they take are much smaller and more robust. In 2007, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent a group of tardigrades into space for twelve days. The tiny animals were exposed to a vacuum and cosmic rays — and almost all of them survived.