Top 10 Most Fascinating Animal Astronauts

With the passage of time, the advancements in science and technology have given a new turn to the way we look to the universe. There have been various interesting facts about the earth and the outer parts that captivate our attention and make us crazy to know more. Other than human beings, there have been many animal astronauts as well. Can’t believe animals in space? You will once you check this list of top 10 most fascinating animal astronauts.

10. Newts

In 1985, The Bion 7 mission was launched. For this mission, some animals were selected like two moneys and 10 newts. The purpose was to study the reaction of body to injuries in space. The scientist had cut-off the front limbs and removed part of the poor Newts’ lenses for this project.

9. Turtles

The turtles were sent to space in 1968. The mission of Soviets was to send two turtles in the Zond 5 spacecraft. It was intended to find the facts about depths of space. The Zond 5 had made loops around the moon before it could come back to the earth safely.

8. Spiders

The spiders were also sent to space. These were two European garden spiders named Anita & Arabella. They were sent to space in 1973 in Skylab 3 space-craft. The researches wantes to find information about how spaceflights and weightlessness can impact their power of constructing webs. Unfortunately both Anita & Arabella died due to dehydration.

7. Dogs

Laika is one of the most famous non-human space travellers in the history. It was a dog that had to fly into space. She had flown on November 3, 1957 in Sputnik 2 rocket but unfortunately Laika (a first dog in space) died due to overheating in the spaceship.

6. Monkeys

Since 1940, various countries attempted to send monkeys to space. For the first time in 1961, Ham (a first monkey in space) became the only chimp to enter space successfully. Following him about a year after, Enos was another monkey that had orbited around the earth. This paved the ways to send these creatures to space for different missions.

5. Mice

In 1950, one mouse was sent to space through the 5^th flight of the Albert series. Unfortunately, this flight wasn’t successful because the parachute recovery system broke down. A year after in 1951, the U.S. Aerobee missile had taken flight with 11 mice in it and in 1958 NASA sent three more mice in the space for the project named ‘Mouse In Able’, which proved to be failed.

4. Guinea Pig

On March 9, 1961, the first guinea pig successfully entered space through the spaceship named Soviet Sputnik 9. It was sent with some other animals like dog, reptiles and mice. Later on in 1990, China sent 60 plants and some animals including guinea pigs to space through biosatellite FSW-1 3.

3. Frogs

NASA sent two bullfrogs in space in 1970 during a project named as Orbiting Frog Otolith (OFO). During this research mission, it was to find how otolith can adapt to weightless ambience. The mission was successful because the researchers found sufficient information, but the frogs died.

2. Fish

For accumulating enough data about otolith organ, a pair of mummichog fish (the first fist in space) was sent in 1973. The spaceship they travelled on was named Skylab 3. The fish were to survive extreme condition, and were luckily able to get success.

1. Cats

France seems to have been quiet ahead to send animals to space. They had sent a cat named Felix to space back in October, 1963. Felix (first cat in space) was launched off in the Véronique AGI rocket and safely came back after the success of the mission.