Animal House: Dogs (And Other Animals) in Space

With the era of the space shuttle coming to a close last week, with the of Atlantis ending 30 years of the space shuttle program, it is interesting to look back over the past 50-plus years and the great space race between the United States and Russia. 

In the early days of spaceflight, there were several tests done to put items into orbit; the most notable was, of course, Sputnik 1. 

There were several other sputnik satellites that followed, several of which carried animals. Both the Russian and American space program have utilized animals in the development of spaceflight, specifically testing the effects of weightlessness on a living being. 

The first animal astronaut was Albert 1, a rhesus monkey, in 1948 in White Sands New Mexico.  There were five of these missions known as the “Albert” series. In 1951 there was an addition of 11 mice and one monkey, named Yorick.  Yorick received a lot of press at the time as he was the first monkey to survive a space flight. 

The Russians during this time were watching the American experiments closely and used mice, rabbits and rats as one-way passengers for their primary testing. 

Needing to design a capsule for humans, the Russians chose canines instead of monkeys for their next phase of testing. During the time of 1951 to 1952 a total of nine canines were used, three of which flew in space twice. 

Sputnik 2 carried a payload of a small canine but expired after two hours, as the Russians never developed a reentry and recovery protocol.  Sputnik 2 eventually burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere.  The dog was later nicknamed “Mutnick” by the Americans. 

A year later, the United States was using mice in developing the reentry program and sent two monkeys 300 miles up in space, and successfully retrieved them unharmed.

The information gathered definitively proved that humans could in fact survive reentry. 

The United States continued testing reentry and abort protocols with monkeys into the 1960’s.  During this time the Russians continued their testing using dogs. 

On board Sputnik 5 there was a payload of two dogs, Belka ("Squirrel") and Strelka ("Little Arrow") along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants (Strelka later gave birth to a litter of six puppies one of which was given to JFK as a gift for his children, according to the NASA website). 

Later in 1961, Enos became the first chimp to orbit the earth aboard an American Mercury Atlas rocket. He and the Mercury spacecraft were retrieved and performed well enough that his mission concluded the testing for human orbital flight, which was then completed by John Glenn in 1962. 

In 1966 two dogs were sent into orbit to study the prolonged effects of weightlessness and radiation.  This mission lasted twenty-one days and still stands as the record for canine space flight and humans did not surpass this record until eight years later aboard Skylab 2. 

The missions using animals continued until the Apollo 11 lunar landing and at that point animals have been limited to biological payload, meaning they were used in science experiments and observation only. 

In the fifty plus years of the exploration of space, we as humans, would not have been able to learn what we know and have a space program as safe and successful if it were not for the animals used. 

There were several failures and a number of lost animal lives, but the knowledge gained and the countless number of lives these animals protected will forever be a lasting tribute.  As each space shuttle launched it was the smallest of animals and insects that allowed this to take place. 

As a child, I watched as Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavor, Columbia, and Enterprise left our planet, built a space station and made the stars seem not so far away.

In the 30 years of the space shuttle program, there were 14 deaths, but with that came the first African American astronaut, first female astronaut, first Arabian astronaut, first Hispanic astronaut, first Mexican astronaut, first African American female astronaut, first Japanese astronaut and a sense of adventure and wonder for everyone who had the privilege of watching a launch. 

All of this thanks to animals.