Often animal activist groups can be pretty annoying with their over-the-top defense of animals. Even though I don’t eye-to-eye with these animal activists there is one use of animals that seems a little cruel and that is sending animals into space. I’m sure they are very careful with the animals but sending animals off into the great unknown doesn’t seem right. Over the years there are been many different kinds of animals forced to become astronauts.
Cats
The most famous cats are mostly fictional cats like Garfield or Heathcliff but the most famous cat should be Felix the cat. No, not the cartoon cat named Felix. There was a real cat named Felix that was trained to be the first cat in space. In a Pixar-like turn of events Felix somehow escaped the evil French and another cat named Felicette was sent into space instead.
Dogs
Dogs have been a common animal chosen for space travel but the most famous is probably Laika. In 1957 Laika was the first living being sent into space but unfortunately she did not survive the trip. It seemed like cruel research and maybe delayed the use of animals for a little while but three years later animals were being sent off to space again.
Fish
The mummichog is often referred to as the toughest fish on Earth. Mummichogs have survived extremely bad conditions such as polluted and oxygen-derived water. Since the mummichogs are able to survive these conditions they were chosen as the first type of fish to be sent into space in 1973.
Frogs
In 1970 NASA launched a couple of bullfrogs into space for an experiment on an inner-ear mechanism for controlling the equilibrium. NASA considered the experiment successful because they got the information needed but the spacecraft was never recovered and the frogs were left floating in space.
Guinea Pigs
Someone really needs to get the Guinea Pig a new publicist. Since one definition of a “guinea pig” is a subject that is used in a test, the normal definition of a guinea pig has also been dragged into experiments. The first guinea pig launched into space made his trip back in 1961 and all the animals included on the journey survived.
Mice
Obviously mice have been to space. Aren’t mice used for every experiment every done? Why would space be any different? Mice have been going to space for decades but unfortunately that brave first mouse into space splattered to death when his parachute recovery system did not work.
Monkeys
It has to stink to go to space with a monkey. When they throw their feces it’s just going to float around in the air. The first monkey sent into space occurred many decades ago and they were used frequently even though none of them survived until a good 10 years later. The first monkey sent to space didn’t even get to outer space before it died. Two monkeys by the name of Able and Baker were the first monkeys to survive going to space in 1959.
Newt
Newts have been used occasionally since 1985. The Bion 7 mission was the first to take newts into space and since then there have been newts on the Columbia, the Foton-M2 mission, Japan’s Space Flyer Unit and the Mir Space Station.
Spiders
The Spider is one of the few “animals” to be sent into space for a reason other than simply seeing if a life form could survive. A student named Judy Miles came up with the idea to send spiders into space to see how well they can construct a web in space. Therefore, two spiders named Arabella and Anita were sent into space in 1973 on the Skylab 3. Both spiders were able to spin webs although they did not survive the trip home.
Turtles
Slow and steady wins the race once again. The turtle is one of the few animals that survived flights into space from the very beginning. The very first turtles in space both survived the Zond 5 in 1968. In 1975 the Soviets sent a turtle into space for 90 days. At the time it was the longest an animal had been sent to space and survived.
