Ham
the
juvenile
chimp
with
trainers
at
Cape
Canaveral,
Florida,
on
January
31,
1961.
Photo:
NASA
From
spiders
struggling
to
make
webs
in
orbit
to
bats
clinging
to
the
outside
of
the
Space
Shuttle,
the
history
of
animals
in
space
is
as
fascinating
as
it
is
weird.
Here
are
some
of
our
favorite
stories.
On
June
11,
1948,
a
rhesus
monkey
named
Albert
I
become
the
first
animal
to
reach
space,
strapped
aboard
a
V-2
Blossom
rocket
that
flew
to
a
suborbital
height
of
83
miles
(134
kilometers)
above
the
surface.
Since
then,
scientists
have
sent
a
dizzying
assortment
of
living
organisms
to
space,
including
dogs,
apes,
reptiles,
insects,
plants,
and
various
microorganisms.
Many
animals
were
killed
as
a
result
of
these
pioneering
missions.
As
NASA
has
said,
they
“gave
their
lives...in
the
name
of
technological
advancement,
paving
the
way
for
humanity’s
many
forays
into
space.”
This
story
was
originally
published
on
August
4,
2022.
Laika
aboard
the
Sputnik
2
capsule
prior
to
launch
in
1957.
Photo:
Copyright
1957
The
Associated
Press
(AP)
The
Soviet
Union
sent
its
fair
share
of
dogs
to
space
during
the
formative
years
of
the
country’s
space
program,
including
Laika—the
first
animal
ever
sent
to
Earth
orbit.
Laika
died
during
this
one-way
mission.
These
experiments
were
crude
by
today’s
standards,
as
Laika,
among
other
Soviet
dogs
sent
to
space,
were
literally
stray
mutts
picked
off
the
street.
Prior
to
the
1957
Laika
mission,
the
Soviet
Union
conducted
a
number
of
high-altitude
tests
with
canines.
In
1951,
a
dog
named
Smelaya
ran
away
a
day
before
the
scheduled
launch,
leading
to
concerns
that
she
might
get
eaten
by
wolves
living
nearby,
according
to
NASA’s
“A
Brief
History
of
Animals
in
Space.”
Smelaya
managed
to
return
the
next
day,
and
the
test
flight
proved
to
be
a
success.
Later
that
same
year,
a
dog
named
Bobik
also
escaped,
never
to
return.
Unfazed,
the
mission
planners
found
a
replacement
hanging
out
near
a
local
pub;
the
team
named
her
ZIB—the
Russian
acronym
for
“Substitute
for
Missing
Dog
Bobik.”
It’s
the
classic
story
of
hanging
out
at
a
bar
one
day
and
then
finding
yourself
launched
to
a
suborbital
height
of
60
miles
(100
kilometers)
the
next.
The
“life
cell”
holding
four
back
mice
for
the
Discoverer
3
mission.
Photo:
USAF
The
first
mice
to
reach
space
did
so
in
the
1950s,
but
these
early
missions
often
ended
in
disaster.
In
1959,
the
U.S.
Air
Force
scrubbed
a
launch
attempt
from
Vandenberg
Air
Force
Base
in
California
when
sensors
failed
to
detect
signs
of
life
in
the
Discoverer
3
capsule.
The
four
mice
were
found
dead,
having
overdosed
on
the
krylon
paint
sprayed
onto
their
cages
to
cover
the
rough
edges.
The
mice
had
evidently
found
the
krylon
to
be
tastier—and
deadlier—than
the
formula
provided
to
them.
A
second
launch
attempt
with
a
back-up
mouse
crew
was
also
scrubbed
when
sensors
recorded
100%
humidity
inside
the
capsule.
“The
capsule
was
opened
up
and
it
was
discovered
that
the
sensor
was
located
underneath
one
of
the
mouse
cages,”
according
to
NASA.
The
sensor
was
“unable
to
distinguish
the
difference
between
water
and
mouse
urine,”
and
the
launch
proceeded
after
it
dried
out,
according
to
the
space
agency.
The
rocket
finally
managed
to
blast
off
on
June
3,
but
the
rocket’s
upper
stage
fired
downward,
sending
the
vehicle—along
with
the
four
mice—crashing
into
the
Pacific
Ocean.
Clearly,
it
was
a
mission
that
simply
wasn’t
meant
to
be.
Ham
the
juvenile
chimp
with
trainers
at
Cape
Canaveral,
Florida,
on
January
31,
1961.
Photo:
NASA
Ham
the
chimpanzee
is
famous
for
being
the
first
great
ape
in
space,
earning
this
distinction
on
January
31,
1961.
A
key
goal
of
this
NASA
Mercury-Redstone
mission
was
to
determine
if
animals
could
perform
tasks
in
space.
To
that
end,
Ham,
who
was
only
2
years
old
when
the
training
began,
was
taught
to
move
levers,
both
to
receive
awards
in
the
form
of
banana
pellets
and
to
avoid
punishment
in
the
form
of
electric
shocks
to
his
feet.
Ham,
in
addition
to
dealing
with
the
terrifying
demands
of
spaceflight,
also
had
to
actively
avoid
getting
electric
shocks
during
his
journey.
The
young
chimp
performed
exceptionally
well—and
under
incredible
adversity,
as
NASA
explains:
Ham
performed
these
tasks
well,
pushing
the
continuous
avoidance
lever
about
50
times
and
receiving
only
two
shocks
for
bad
timing.
On
the
discrete
avoidance
lever,
his
score
was
perfect.
Reaction
time
on
the
blue-light
lever
averaged
.82
second,
compared
with
a
preflight
performance
of
.8
second.
Ham
had
gone
from
a
heavy
acceleration
g
load
on
exit
through
six
minutes
of
weightlessness
and
to
another
heavy
g
load
on
reentry
hardly
missing
a
trick.
Onboard
cameras
filming
Ham’s
reaction
to
weightlessness
also
recorded
a
surprising
amount
of
dust
and
debris
floating
around
inside
the
capsule
during
its
zenith.
The
successful
mission
set
the
stage
for
Alan
Shepard,
who
became
the
first
U.S.
citizen
to
reach
space
in
1961.
Ham
lived
the
rest
of
his
life
in
zoos.
Félicette
in
her
carrier
before
the
historic
flight.
Photo:
CNES
On
October
18,
1963,
the
French
space
program
launched
Félicette—a
stray
Persian
cat—into
space.
Electrodes
were
implanted
into
the
cat’s
skull
to
track
neurological
activity
and
to
trigger
physical
responses.
Either
surprisingly
or
unsurprisingly
(it’s
hard
to
say
which),
Félicette
remains
the
only
cat
to
have
been
successfully
delivered
to
space.
Scientists
euthanized
Félicette
shortly
after
the
flight
to
study
her
brain.
In
2017,
a
crowdfunding
campaign
succeeded
in
building
a
memorial
for
Félicette—a
bronze
statue
depicting
the
cat
“perched
atop
Earth,
gazing
up
toward
the
skies
she
once
traveled.”
The
statue
is
currently
located
at
the
International
Space
University
in
France.
Soviet
cosmodogs
Veterok
and
Ugolyok.
Photo:
Roscosmos
In
February
1966,
the
Soviet
space
program
launched
the
dogs
Veterok
and
Ugolyok
to
beyond
the
protective
Van
Allen
Belts,
which
they
did
to
study
the
prolonged
effects
of
space
travel
and
the
deleterious
effects
of
radiation.
The
dogs
stayed
in
space
for
21
days,
which
remains
the
canine
record.
On
their
return,
the
dogs
were
dehydrated
and
they
had
lost
weight.
Veterok
and
Ugolyok
also
exhibited
weakened
circulation,
muscle
atrophy,
and
a
loss
of
coordination;
it
took
them
an
entire
month
to
recover.
Their
restricted
mobility
likely
had
a
lot
to
do
with
it,
but
it
was
an
early
sign
that
prolonged
stays
in
space
can
produce
bad
health
outcomes.
The
21
days
in
space
remained
a
record
for
any
animal—including
humans—until
the
Soviet
Soyuz
11
mission,
in
which
three
cosmonauts
stayed
aboard
the
Salyut
1
space
station
for
23
days.
Tragically,
the
three
men
died
during
reentry
and
remain
the
only
humans
to
have
perished
in
space
(the
crew
of
the
Space
Shuttle
Columbia
was
technically
not
in
space
when
the
shuttle
disintegrated
on
February
1,
2003,
resulting
in
their
deaths).
The
Soviet
Zond
5
capsule
after
splashdown.
Photo:
S.P.Korolev
RSC
Energia
For
the
Soviet
Zond
5
mission,
a
batch
of
living
organisms
took
a
historic
trip
around
the
Moon
and
back.
Launched
in
1968,
the
payload
included
a
pair
of
Steppe
turtles,
hundreds
of
fruit
fly
eggs,
worms,
plants
(including
air-dried
cells
of
carrots,
tomatoes,
peas,
wheat,
and
barley),
seeds,
bacteria,
and
other
creatures.
No
living
creatures
had
ever
ventured
so
far
into
space,
and
the
mission
ended
successfully
with
the
capsule
splashing
down
in
the
Indian
Ocean.
The
tortoises
were
still
alive
but
at
the
point
of
starvation,
the
result
of
a
39-day
fast.
A
duplicate
mission
later
in
the
year
suffered
an
anomaly
that
resulted
in
the
loss
of
cabin
pressure
and
the
demise
of
all
biological
specimens.
Scientist
John
Boyd
holding
a
bag
of
two
mummichog
minnows
who
became
the
first
fish
in
space
as
part
of
the
Skylab
3
mission,
July
to
September
1973.
Photo:
NASA
A
fish,
specifically
a
mummichog
(Fundulus
heteorclitus),
was
sent
to
Skylab
in
1973.
Scientists
were
seeking
to
study
the
ways
in
which
vestibular
function,
which
controls
balance
in
normal
gravity,
may
be
compromised
in
space.
The
tiny
fish,
along
with
a
batch
of
fish
that
developed
from
embryos
brought
to
space,
exhibited
strange
swimming
behavior,
moving
in
loops.
“The
fish
were
probably
responding
to
signals
from
extremely
fine
hairs
in
their
otolith
[a
vestibular
organ
in
fish]
which
straighten
out
in
the
absence
of
gravity,”
according
to
NASA.
“They
reacted
by
swimming
in
a
forward
loop
which
was
distorted
into
a
sideways
loop
by
the
tendency
to
keep
their
backs
to
the
light.”
The
fish,
it
would
seem,
were
responding
to
light
(i.e.
visual
cues)
in
the
absence
of
gravity,
which
would
normally
allow
them
to
discern
up
from
down.
Arabella’s
first
web
had
serious
issues,
but
her
next
web
more
resembled
those
she
spun
back
on
Earth.
Photo:
NASA
In
1973,
scientists
delivered
Anita
and
Arabella,
two
common
Cross
spiders
(Araneus
diadematus),
to
Skylab
3.
High
school
student
Judith
Miles
wondered
if
microgravity
conditions
would
prevent
or
somehow
complicate
the
spiders’
ability
to
weave
webs,
and
she
proposed
the
Skylab
experiment
with
scientists
from
the
Marshall
Space
Flight
Center.
Both
spiders
struggled
at
first
and
were
reluctant
to
do
anything
while
in
orbit,
but
with
some
prodding
and
access
to
rare
filet
mignon
(yes,
really)
and
water,
the
spiders
began
to
weave
rudimentary
webs.
Anita
and
Arabella
got
better
at
building
their
webs
on
subsequent
attempts
and
their
silky
creations
compared
well
to
those
made
back
on
Earth.
“Judy
Miles’
experiment
received
a
great
deal
of
attention
both
within
NASA
and
in
the
world
press
and
indicated
that
there
was
keen
interest
in
space
experiments
involving
living
organisms,”
NASA
described.
High
school
student
Judith
Miles
proposing
her
Skylab
spider
web
space
experiment
in
1972.
Photo:
NASA
The
C.
elegans
nemotodes,
or
round
worms,
undergoing
experimentation
on
the
Space
Shuttle.
Photo:
NASA/Ames/Volker
Kern
All
seven
crew
members
were
killed
during
the
2003
Space
Shuttle
Columbia
disaster,
but
something
did
pull
through
this
awful
episode:
worms.
Incredibly,
containers
of
roundworms
(C.
elegans)
managed
to
survive
Columbia’s
calamitous
breakup.
The
nutrient
solution
in
which
they
were
stored
served
as
a
shield,
as
did
the
container.
The
worms
also
managed
to
reproduce
and
spawn
a
lineage
that
produced
five
generations
in
the
months
following
the
accident.
A
tardigrade
as
seen
through
a
microscope.
Image:
Philippe
Garcelon
In
one
of
the
greatest
feats
of
endurance,
a
batch
of
tardigrades
managed
to
survive
10
days
of
exposure
to
open
space.
The
experiment
occurred
in
2007
as
part
of
the
European
Space
Agency’s
FOTON-M3
mission,
and
it
established
tardigrades,
also
known
as
water
bears,
as
among
the
toughest
organisms
on
the
planet—and
off.
“Our
principle
finding
is
that
the
space
vacuum,
which
entails
extreme
dehydration
and
cosmic
radiation,
were
not
a
problem
for
water
bears,”
said
TARDIS
project
leader
Ingemar
Jönsson,
from
the
University
of
Kristianstad
in
Sweden.
A
bat
clinging
to
the
Space
Shuttle
fuel
tank
in
2009.
Photo:
NASA
As
Space
Shuttle
Discovery
prepared
to
launch
for
the
STS-119
mission
in
March
2009,
ground
controllers
noticed
a
bat
clinging
to
the
external
fuel
tank.
Looking
at
images,
wildlife
experts
believed
the
bat
had
broken
a
wing
and
was
experiencing
a
problem
with
its
right
shoulder
or
wrist.
Ground
controllers
hoped
it
would
fly
away
on
its
own,
but
the
bat
stayed
put,
remaining
visible
on
the
fuel
tank
as
the
Shuttle
cleared
the
tower.
The
ultimate
fate
of
the
bat
was
never
determined,
but
it’s
fair
to
say
this
story
likely
did
not
have
a
happy
ending.
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