Animals In Space
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Animals in space originally served to test the
survivability Survivability is the ability to remain alive or continue to exist. The term has more specific meaning in certain contexts. Ecological Following disruptive forces such as flood, fire, disease, war, or climate change some species of flora, faun ...
of
spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...
, before
human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
s were attempted. Later, many species were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects
microgravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...
and space flight might have on them.
Bioastronautics Bioastronautics is a specialty area of biological and astronautical research which encompasses numerous aspects of biological, behavioral, and medical concern governing humans and other living organisms in outer space; and includes the design o ...
is an area of
bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number ...
research that spans the study and support of life in
space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...
. To date, seven national space programs have flown non-human animals into space: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran. A wide variety of non-human animals have been launched into space, including monkeys and apes,
dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers ...
,
cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
, tortoises, mice, rats, rabbits, fish, frogs, spiders, insects, and quail eggs (which hatched on ''
Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...
'' in 1990). The US launched the first Earthlings into space, with fruit flies surviving a 1947 flight, followed by primates in 1949. The
Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...
launched multiple dogs into space, with the first
sub-orbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...
flights in 1951, and first orbital flights in 1957. Two tortoises and several varieties of plants were the first Earthlings to circle the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
in September 1968 on the
Zond 5 Zond 5 () was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 it became the first spaceship to travel to and circle the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory, the first Moon mission to include animals, and the first to return safely to Ea ...
mission. In 1972, five mice nicknamed
Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey were five mice who traveled to the Moon and circled it 75 times on the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. NASA gave them identification numbers A3305, A3326, A3352, A3356, and A3400, and their nicknames were given by the Apollo 1 ...
orbited the Moon a record 75 times aboard command module ''America'' as part of the
Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...
mission (the most recent to put Earthlings into lunar orbit).


Background

Animals had been used in aeronautic exploration since 1783 when the
Montgolfier brothers The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (; 26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (; 6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the Communes o ...
sent a sheep, a duck, and a rooster aloft in a
hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...
to see if ground-dwelling animals can survive (the duck serving as the experimental control). The limited supply of captured German V-2 rockets led to the U.S. use of high-altitude balloon launches carrying fruit flies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, frogs, goldfish and monkeys to heights of up to . These high-altitude balloon flights from 1947 to 1960 tested
radiation exposure Radiation exposure is a measure of the ionization of air due to ionizing radiation from photons. It is defined as the electric charge freed by such radiation in a specified volume of air divided by the mass of that air. As of 2007, "medical radia ...
, physiological response, life support and recovery systems. The U.S. high-altitude manned balloon flights occurred in the same time frame, one of which also carried fruit flies.


Timeline


1940s

The first animals sent into space were fruit flies aboard a U.S.-launched
V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...
on 20 February 1947 from
White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...
,
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. The purpose of the experiment was to explore the effects of radiation exposure at high altitudes. The rocket reached in 3 minutes 10 seconds, past both the U.S. Air Force and the international 100 km definitions of the boundary of space. The Blossom capsule was ejected and successfully deployed its parachute. The fruit flies were recovered alive. Other V-2 missions carried biological samples, including
moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
. Albert II, a
rhesus monkey The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...
, became the first monkey, first primate, and first mammal in space on 14 June 1949, in a U.S.-launched V-2, after the failure of the original Albert's mission on ascent. Albert I reached only altitude; Albert II reached about , and died on impact after a parachute failure. Numerous monkeys of several species were flown by the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Monkeys were implanted with sensors to measure vital signs, and many were under
anesthesia Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...
during launch. The death rate among these monkeys was very high: about two-thirds of all monkeys launched in the 1940s and 1950s died on missions or soon after landing.


1950s

On 31 August 1950, the U.S. launched a
mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
into space (137 km) aboard a V-2 (the Albert V flight, which, unlike the Albert I-IV flights, did not have a monkey), however, the animal died following descent because the parachute system failed. The U.S. launched several other mice in the 1950s. On 22 July 1951, the Soviet Union launched the R-1 IIIA-1 flight, carrying the
dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...
s Tsygan (, "Gypsy" or "Țigan/Țagaur" in romani language) and Dezik () into space, but not into orbit. These two dogs were the first living higher organisms successfully recovered from a spaceflight. Both space dogs survived the flight, although Dezik would die on a subsequent flight. The U.S. launched mice aboard spacecraft later that year; however, they failed to reach the altitude for true spaceflight. On 3 November 1957, the second-ever orbiting spacecraft carried the first animal into orbit, the dog
Laika Laika ( ; , ; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into lo ...
, launched aboard the Soviet
Sputnik 2 Sputnik 2 (, , ''Satellite 2'', or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, , ''Simplest Satellite 2'', launched on 3 November 1957, was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, and the first to carry an animal into orbit, a Soviet space dog named ...
spacecraft (nicknamed 'Muttnik' in the West). Laika died during the flight, as was expected because the technology to return spacecraft from orbit had not yet been developed. At least 10 other dogs were launched into orbit and numerous others on sub-orbital flights before the historic date of 12 April 1961, when
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...
became the first human in space. On 13 December 1958, a Jupiter IRBM, AM-13, was launched from
Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...
, Florida, with a
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo was lost.
Telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', 'far off', an ...
data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10  g of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 ''g'' of reentry at . The nose cone sank downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered.
Monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...
s Miss Able and Miss Baker became the first monkeys to survive spaceflight after their 1959 flight. On 28 May 1959, aboard Jupiter IRBM AM-18, were a American-born
rhesus monkey The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...
, Able, from Independence, Kansas, and a squirrel monkey from Peru, Baker. The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of and a distance of down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral, Florida. They withstood forces 38 times the normal pull of gravity and were weightless for about 9 minutes. A top speed of was reached during their 16-minute flight. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. Baker was the center of media attention for the next several months as she was watched closely for any ill-effects from her space flight. She was even mated in an attempt to test her reproductive system. Baker lived until 29 November 1984, at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in
Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
. On 2 July 1959, a launch of a Soviet R2 rocket, which reached , carried two space dogs and Marfusha, the first rabbit to go into space. A 19 September 1959 launch, a Jupiter AM-23, carried two frogs and 12 mice but was destroyed during launch. On 4 December 1959, a rhesus macaque Sam flew on the Little Joe 2 mission of
Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
to an altitude of .


1960s

On 19 August 1960 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 (also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2) which carried the dogs Belka and Strelka, along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants. It was the first spacecraft to carry animals into orbit and return them alive. One of Strelka's pups, Pushinka, bred and born after her mission, was given as a present to
Caroline Kennedy Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, diplomat, and attorney who served as the List of ambassadors of the United States to Australia, United States ambassador to Australia from 2022 to 2024. She previously serv ...
by
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
in 1961, and many descendants are known to exist. The US sent three black mice: Sally, Amy and Moe 1,000 km up and 8,000 km distance from Cape Canaveral on 13 October 1960 using an Atlas D 71D launch vehicle. The mice were retrieved from the nosecone near Ascension Island and were said to be in good condition. On 31 January 1961,
Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...
, a chimpanzee, was launched into sub-orbital space in a Mercury capsule aboard a Redstone rocket to become the first
great ape The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...
in space. Ham's mission was Mercury-Redstone 2. The chimpanzee had been trained to pull levers to receive rewards of banana pellets and avoid electric shocks. His flight demonstrated the ability to perform tasks during spaceflight. A little over three months later the United States sent
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...
into space on a suborbital flight. Enos became the first and only chimpanzee to reach Earth orbit when, on 29 November 1961, he flew two orbits in a Mercury capsule on the Mercury-Atlas 5 mission. Two months later
Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
pilot
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...
orbited the Earth. On 9 March 1961 the Soviet Union launched the Korabl-Sputnik 4 that carried a dog named Chernushka, some mice,
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
s and, for the first time into space, a
guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy ( ), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'', family Caviidae. Animal fancy, Breeders tend to use the name "cavy" for the ani ...
. All were successfully recovered. France flew their first
rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...
(Hector) into space on 22 February 1961. Two more rats were flown in October 1962. On 18 October 1963, France launched Félicette the cat aboard Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47. The launch was directed by the French Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA). Félicette was recovered alive after a 15-minute flight and a descent by parachute. Félicette had electrodes implanted into her brain, and the recorded neural impulses were transmitted back to Earth. After two months of analysis, she was euthanized so an autopsy could be performed. On 18 December 2019 a bronze statue with the effigy of Félicette was inaugurated at the "Université internationalle de l'espace" in
Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
, France. A second cat was sent to space by CERMA on 24 October 1963, but the flight ran into difficulties that prevented recovery. In 1967, France launched two pig-tailed macaque monkeys into suborbital space. China launched mice and rats in 1964 and 1965, and two dogs in 1966. During the Voskhod program, two Soviet space dogs, Veterok (Ветерок, Little Wind) and Ugolyok (Уголёк, Blackie), were launched on 22 February 1966, on board Cosmos 110 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March. This spaceflight of record-breaking duration was not surpassed by humans until Soyuz 11 in 1971 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs. The US launched Biosatellite I in 1966 and Biosatellite I/II in 1967 with fruit flies,
parasitic wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps ( Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causi ...
s, flour beetles and frog eggs, along with
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
,
amoebae An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; : amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and r ...
, plants and
fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
. On 11 April 1967, Argentina also launched the rat Belisario, atop a Yarará rocket, from Cordoba military range, which was recovered successfully. This flight was followed by a series of subsequent flights using rats. It is unclear if any Argentinean biological flights passed the 100 km limit of space. The first animals in deep space, the first to circle the Moon, and the first two
tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...
s in space were launched on
Zond 5 Zond 5 () was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 it became the first spaceship to travel to and circle the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory, the first Moon mission to include animals, and the first to return safely to Ea ...
on 14 September 1968 by the Soviet Union. The Horsfield's tortoises were sent on a circumlunar voyage to the Moon along with wine flies, meal worms, and other biological specimens. These were the first inhabitants of Earth to travel around the Moon. The capsule overshot its terrestrial landing site but was successfully recovered at sea on 21 September. The animals survived but underwent weight loss. More turtles followed on the circumlunar Zond 6 mission of November 1968 (ahead of the December U.S. crewed
Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times ...
mission) and four turtles flew on the circumlunar Zond 7 mission which flew around the Moon on August 11, 1969, three weeks after
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...
's Moon walk. On 28 June 1969, the US launched the monkey Bonny, a macaque, on Biosatellite 3 in what was intended to have been a 30-day orbit around the Earth, with the monkey being fed by food pellets from a dispenser that he had been trained to operate. Bonny's health deteriorated rapidly and he was returned to Earth on 7 July, but died the next day after the Biosatellite capsule was recovered in the Pacific Ocean. In total in the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union launched missions with at least 57 passenger slots for dogs. The actual number of dogs in space is smaller, because some dogs flew more than once. On 23 December 1969, as part of the 'Operación Navidad' (Operation Christmas), Argentina launched Juan (a cai monkey, native of Argentina's Misiones Province) using a Canopus II rocket. It ascended 82 kilometers and then was recovered successfully. Later, on 1 February 1970 the experience was repeated with a female monkey of the same species using a X-1 Panther rocket. It reached a higher altitude than its predecessor, but it was lost after the capsule's parachute failed.


1970s

Two bullfrogs were launched on a one-way mission on the Orbiting Frog Otolith satellite on 9 November 1970, to understand more about space motion sickness.
Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth human spaceflight, crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the second o ...
, launched on 16 April 1972, carried
nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...
s.
Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...
, launched on 7 December 1972, carried five pocket mice,
Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey were five mice who traveled to the Moon and circled it 75 times on the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. NASA gave them identification numbers A3305, A3326, A3352, A3356, and A3400, and their nicknames were given by the Apollo 1 ...
, who stayed in the command module with astronaut Ronald Evans as it circled the Moon for six days. One of the mice died on the trip. Skylab 3 (1973) carried pocket mice and the first
fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
in space (a mummichog), and the first
spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...
s in space ( garden spiders named Arabella and Anita). Mummichog were also flown by the U.S. on the
Apollo–Soyuz Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international Space exploration, space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo comm ...
joint mission, launched 15 July 1975. The Soviets flew several Bion program missions which consisted of satellites with biological cargoes. On these launches they flew tortoises, rats, and mummichog. On Soyuz 20, launched 17 November 1975, tortoises set the duration record for an animal in space when they spent 90.5 days in space. Salyut 5 on 22 June 1976, carried tortoises and a fish (a zebra danio).


1980s

The Soviet Union sent eight monkeys into space in the 1980s on Bion flights. Bion flights also flew zebra danio, fruit flies, rats, stick insect eggs and the first
newts A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...
in space. In 1985, the U.S. sent two
squirrel monkeys Squirrel monkeys are New World monkeys of the genus ''Saimiri''. ''Saimiri'' is the only genus in the subfamily Saimiriinae. The name of the genus is of Tupi origin (''sai-mirím'' or ''çai-mbirín'', with ''sai'' meaning 'monkey' and ''mirím' ...
aboard Spacelab 3 on the
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
with 24 male albino
rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
and
stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida or Phasmatoptera) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick bugs, walkingsticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as Devil's da ...
eggs. Bion 7 (1985) had 10 newts ('' Pleurodeles waltl'') on board. The newts had part of their front limbs amputated, to study the rate of regeneration in space, knowledge to understand human recovery from space injuries. After an experiment was lost in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster,
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
embryos (fertilized eggs) were sent into space in an experiment on STS-29 in 1989. The experiment was designed for a student contest.


1990s

Four monkeys flew aboard the last Bion flights of the Soviet Union as well as frogs and fruit flies. The Foton program flights carried dormant
brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or ''Sea-Monkeys, sea monkeys''. It is the only genus in the Family (biology), family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to t ...
('' Artemia franciscana''), newts, fruit flies, and sand desert beetles ('' Trigonoscelis gigas''). China launched guinea pigs in 1990. Toyohiro Akiyama, a Japanese journalist, carried Japanese tree frogs with him during his trip to the ''
Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...
'' space station in December 1990. Other biological experiments aboard Mir involved
quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
eggs. In 1994, four Japanese rice fish successfully mated and laid eggs that hatched to produce healthy fry aboard STS-65, making them the first animals to conceive and bear offspring in space. Japan launched its first animals, a species of newt, into space on 18 March 1995 aboard the Space Flyer Unit. During the 1990s the U.S. carried
crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets and more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms,Imms AD, rev. Richards OW & Davies RG (1970) ''A General Textbook of Entomology'' 9th Ed. Methuen 886 ...
, mice, rats, frogs, newts, fruit flies,
snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...
s,
carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...
,
medaka The Japanese rice fish (''Oryzias latipes''), also known as the medaka, is a member of genus ''Oryzias'' ( ricefish), the only genus in the subfamily Oryziinae. This small (up to about ) native of Japan is a denizen of rice paddies, marshes, po ...
(rice fish), oyster toadfish,
sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...
s, swordtail fish, spongy moth eggs, stick insect eggs,
brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or ''Sea-Monkeys, sea monkeys''. It is the only genus in the Family (biology), family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to t ...
('' Artemia salina''), quail eggs, and
jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...
aboard
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
s.


2000s

The last flight of ''Columbia'' in 2003 carried
silkworm ''Bombyx mori'', commonly known as the domestic silk moth, is a moth species belonging to the family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of '' Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. Silkworms are the larvae of silk moths. The silkworm is of ...
s, garden orb spiders,
carpenter bee Carpenter bees are species in the genus ''Xylocopa'' of the subfamily Xylocopinae. The genus includes some 500 bees in 31 subgenera. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant m ...
s,
harvester ant Harvester ant is a common name for any of the species or genera of ants that collect seeds (called seed predation), or mushrooms as in the case of '' Euprenolepis procera'', which are stored in the nest in communal chambers called granaries. T ...
s, and Japanese killifish (medaka).
Nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...
s ('' C. elegans'') from one experiment were found still alive in the debris after the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. '' C. elegans'' are also part of experiments aboard the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
as well as research using
quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
eggs. Earlier Space Shuttle missions included grade school, junior high and high school projects; some of these included
ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s,
stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida or Phasmatoptera) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick bugs, walkingsticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as Devil's da ...
eggs and
brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or ''Sea-Monkeys, sea monkeys''. It is the only genus in the Family (biology), family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to t ...
cysts. Other science missions included spongy moth eggs. On 12 July 2006, Bigelow Aerospace launched their '' Genesis I'' inflatable space module, containing many small items such as toys and simple experiments chosen by company employees that would be observed via camera. These items included insects, perhaps making it the first private flight to launch animals into space. Included were Madagascar hissing cockroaches and Mexican jumping beans — seeds containing live larvae of the moth '' Cydia saltitans''. On 28 June 2007, Bigelow launched '' Genesis II'', a near-twin to ''Genesis I''. This spacecraft also carried Madagascar hissing cockroaches and added South African flat rock scorpions ('' Hadogenes troglodytes'') and seed-harvester ants (''Pogonomyrmex californicus''). In September 2007, during the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
's FOTON-M3 mission,
tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...
s, also known as water-bears, were able to survive 10 days of exposure to open-space with only their natural protection. On the same mission, a number of cockroaches were carried inside a sealed container and at least one of the females, named Nadezhda, conceived during the mission and produced 33 offspring after returning to Earth. On 15 March 2009, during the countdown of the STS-119, a
free-tailed bat The Molossidae, or free-tailed bats, are a family of bats within the order Chiroptera. The Molossidae is the fourth-largest family of bats, containing about 110 species as of 2012. They are generally quite robust, and consist of many strong-fly ...
was seen clinging to the fuel tank.
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
observers believed the bat would fly off once the Shuttle started to launch, but it did not. Upon analyzing the images, a wildlife expert who provided support to the center said it likely had a broken left wing and some problem with its right shoulder or wrist. The animal most likely perished quickly during ''Discovery''s climb into orbit. In November 2009,
STS-129 STS-129 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF3) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). ''Space Shuttle Atlantis, Atlantis'' was launched on November 16, 2009, at 14:28 Eastern Time Zone, EST, and lan ...
took
painted lady ''Vanessa cardui'' is the most widespread of all butterfly species. It is commonly called the painted lady, or formerly in North America the cosmopolitan. Description File:Vanessa cardui MHNT CUT 2013 3 14 Pontfaverger-Moronvilliers Dos. ...
and
monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. I ...
larvae into space for a school experiment as well as thousands of ''C. elegans'' roundworms for long-term weight loss studies.


2010s

In May 2011, the last flight of (
STS-134 STS-134 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF6) was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier ...
) carried two golden orb spiders, named Gladys and Esmeralda, as well as a fruit fly colony as their food source in order to study the effects of microgravity on spiders' behavior. Tardigrades and extremophiles were also sent into orbit. In November 2011, the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment on the
Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt () was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos (moon), Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 and the tiny Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment f ...
mission planned to carry
tardigrades Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged Segmentation (biology), segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who calle ...
to Mars and back; however, the mission failed to leave Earth orbit. In October 2012, 32 medaka fish were delivered to the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
by Soyuz TMA-06M for the new Aquatic Habitat in the Kibo module. On 28 January 2013, Iranian news agencies reported that Iran sent a monkey in a " Pishgam" rocket to a height of and retrieved a "shipment". Later Iran's space research website uploaded an 18-minute video. The video was uploaded later on YouTube. On 3 February 2013, on the 31st anniversary of its revolution,
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
became the latest country to launch animals into space. The animals (a mouse, two
turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...
s and some worms) were launched on top of the Kavoshgar 3 rocket and returned alive to Earth. In January 2014, the search strategies of pavement ants were studied on the ISS. On 19 July 2014, Russia announced that they launched their Foton-M4 satellite into low Earth orbit (575 kilometers) with one male and four female geckos (possibly gold dust day geckos) as the payload. This was an effort to study the effects of microgravity on reproductive habits of reptiles. On 24 July 2014, it was announced that Russia had lost control of the Foton-M4 satellite, leaving only two months to restore contact before the geckos' food supply was exhausted. Control of the satellite was subsequently restored on 28 July 2014. On 1 September 2014 Russia confirmed the death of all five geckos, stating that their mummified bodies seem to indicate they froze to death. Russia is said to have appointed an emergency commission to investigate the animals' deaths. On 23 September 2014, SpaceX CRS-4 mission delivered 20 mice to live on the ISS for study of the long-term effects of microgravity on the rodents. This was the first use of the Rodent Research Hardware System.Bergin, Chris
"SpaceX's CRS-4 Dragon completes Tuesday arrival at ISS"
, NASA, 22 September 2014
On 14 April 2015, the SpaceX CRS-6 delivered 20 C57BL/6NTAC mice to live on the ISS for evaluating microgravity as the extreme opposite of a healthy active lifestyle. In the absence of gravity, astronauts are subject to a decrease in muscle, bone, and tendon mass. "Although, we're not out to treat couch potatoes," states head Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) scientist on the project Dr. Sam Cadena, "we're hoping that these experiments will help us to better understand muscle loss in populations where physical activity in any form is not an option; e.g., in the frail elderly or those subjected to bed rest or immobilization due to surgery or chronic disease." On 8 April 2016, Rodent Research 3 delivered 20 mice on
SpaceX CRS-8 Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an American space technology company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous a ...
. The experiment sponsored by Eli Lilly and Co. was a study of myostatin inhibition for the prevention of
skeletal A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fram ...
and
muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...
atrophy and weakness. Mice are known to have rapid loss of muscle and bone mass after as little as 12 days of space flight exposure. The mice were euthanized and dissected on the station and then frozen for eventual return to Earth for further study. On 29 June 2018, a
SpaceX Dragon Dragon is a family of spacecraft developed and produced by American private space transportation company SpaceX. The first variant, later named SpaceX Dragon 1, Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) between ...
spaceship blasted off from Florida carrying 20 mice. The rodent crew arrived at the ISS on 2 July 2018. Their record-breaking journey – this was the longest mice have been off the planet – was part of a study on how Earth-dwellers' physiology and sleep schedules responded to the stress of being in space. The Chinese lunar lander
Chang'e 4 Chang'e 4 (; ) is a robotic spacecraft mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of the CNSA. It made a soft landing on the far side of the Moon, the first spacecraft to do so, on 3 January 2019. A communication relay satellite, , w ...
carries a 3 kg sealed container with seeds and insect eggs to test whether plants and insects could hatch and grow together in synergy. The experiment includes six types of organisms:Chinese lunar lander's cotton seeds spring to life on far side of the moon
. William Zheng, ''South China Morning Post''. 15 January 2019.
cottonseed, potato,
rapeseed Rapeseed (''Brassica napus'' subsp. ''napus''), also known as rape and oilseed rape and canola, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturall ...
, ''
Arabidopsis thaliana ''Arabidopsis thaliana'', the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally ...
'' (a flowering plant), as well as yeast and fruit fly eggs. If the eggs hatch, the larvae would produce carbon dioxide, while the germinated plants would release oxygen through
photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...
. A miniature camera is imaging the growth. On 11 April 2019, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed into the Moon during a failed landing attempt. Its payload included a few thousand
tardigrades Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged Segmentation (biology), segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who calle ...
. They could potentially survive on the lunar surface for some years, although it is unclear if they survived the impact.


2020s

On 3 June 2021, SpaceX CRS-22 launched
tardigrades Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged Segmentation (biology), segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who calle ...
(water bears) and Hawaiian bobtail squid to the ISS. The squid were launched as hatchlings and will be studied to see if they can incorporate their symbiotic bacteria into their light organ while in space.


See also

* Alice King Chatham – American designer who designed equipment for some of the first animals in space * * Félix I, a canceled Brazilian Army project to launch a cat in 1958-59. * List of microorganisms tested in outer space * List of species that have landed on the Moon * * * '' One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps'', 2008 documentary * Parachuting animals * * * '' Space Dogs'', 2010 film * Tardigrades on the Moon


References


Further reading

* * Caswell, Kurt. 2018. ''Laika's window: The legacy of a Soviet space dog''. San Antonio: Trinity University Press. * L. W. Fraser and E. H. Siegler, High Altitude Research Using the V-2 Rocket, March 1946 – April 1947 (Johns Hopkins University, Bumblebee Series Report No. 8, July 1948), p. 90. * Kenneth W. Gatland, ''Development of the Guided Missile'' (London and New York, 1952), p. 188 * Capt. David G. Simons, Use of V-2 Rocket to Convey Primate to Upper Atmosphere (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, AF Technical Report 5821, May 1949), p. 1. * Lloyd Mallan, ''Men, Rockets, and Space Rats'' (New York, 1955), pp. 84–93. *


External links


History of chimpanzees in U.S. air and space research



''One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps''. Documentary on History of Primates Used in Space Travel


{{Spaceflight Animal keeping by humans Articles containing video clips *