5 Weirdest and Most Tragic Stories of Animals Who Were Sent to Space

Since 1948, a bewildering variety of living things, including dogs, apes, plants, reptiles, insects, and various microorganisms, have been sent on extraterrestrial missions. Many animals were killed as a result of these pioneering missions. According to NASA, they sacrificed their lives to advance technology, thus opening the door for all of humanity's subsequent trips into space.

A Few Dogs

During the early stages of the nation's space program, the Soviet Union launched numerous dogs into orbit, including Laika, the first animal to orbit the Earth. During this one-way mission, Laika perished.

The Soviet Union carried out several canine high-altitude tests before the 1957 Laika mission. According to NASA's "A Brief History of Animals in Space," Smelaya the dog ran away the day before the scheduled launch in 1951, raising worries that she might be eaten by neighborhood wolves. The test flight turned out to be successful, and Smelaya was able to return the following day. A few months later, a dog by the name of Bobik also ran away and disappeared.

Some Mice

In the 1950s, mice became the first animals to travel to space, but these pioneering missions frequently failed. When sensors failed to detect any life in the Discoverer 3 capsule during a 1959 attempt to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the US Air Force aborted the launch attempt. The Krylon paint that had been sprayed onto the four mice's cages to smooth out the sharp edges caused them to overdose and die. The mice preferred the Krylon to the formula given to them because it was both tastier and deadlier.

When sensors detected 100% humidity within the capsule, a second launch attempt using a backup mouse crew was also scrapped.

A Chimp

On January 31, 1961, Ham the chimpanzee made history by becoming the first great ape to travel into space. Finding out if animals could complete tasks in space was one of the main objectives of the NASA Mercury-Redstone mission. Ham, who had just turned 2 at the time of the training, was instructed to operate levers to receive incentives in the form of banana pellets and to stay away from punishment in the form of an electrical shock to his feet. Ham had to actively avoid electric shocks while traveling, in addition to coping with the frightening demands of spaceflight. According to NASA, the young chimp performed remarkably well despite facing extreme hardship.

The One and Only Cat

The French space program sent a stray Persian cat named Félicette into orbit on October 18, 1963. The cat's skull was surgically implanted with electrodes to monitor neurological activity and also cause physical reactions. The first and last cat to have been successfully launched into space is still Félicette, which is either surprising or unsurprising (it's hard to tell which). Soon after the flight, Félicette was put to death so that researchers could examine her brain.

A Whole Zoo!

A group of living things made the first-ever journey around the Moon and back as part of the Soviet Zond 5 mission. Two Steppe turtles, worms, hundreds of fruit fly eggs, plants, seeds, bacteria, and other organisms were all part of the payload when the spacecraft was launched in 1968. The mission was a success, and the capsule ended up splashing down in the Indian Ocean, the furthest any living thing had ever traveled into space. The result of a 39-day fast was that the tortoises, although still alive, were already on the verge of starvation. Later in the year, a duplicate mission experienced a problem that caused the cabin pressure to drop and all of the biological samples to perish, Gizmodo reports.