According to NASA’s history of animals in space, the first animals were launched into space in the 1940s and 1950s. Scientists also sent monkeys, chimps, and dogs into space to assess the ...

Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka orbited Earth on Sputnik 5 and returned after 16 orbits. They were not alone; mice, plants, and even insects went with them, and all survived.

In 1957, a dog named Laika became the first Earthling to orbit her home planet. The furry cosmonaut looped around the Earth in the Sputnik 2 space capsule, preceding the first human space traveler by ...