Animals in Space

Having successfully negotiated the pitfalls of the previous question, the setter has fallen into a less complex one here.

The first dogs to travel in space were on the Soviet flight R–1 IIIA–1, on 22 July 1951. Their names were Tsygan and Dezik. The first name means Gypsy; the second, I believe, is a Russian boy's name. The flight reached an altitude of 82 miles (110 km); this is above the Kármán line, which is the name given to the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and "outer space", according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the international standard–setting and record–keeping body for aeronautics and space travel. Named after the Hungarian–American engineer and physicist who was the first to calculate that around this altitude the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight, the boundary is 100 kilometres (62 miles) above the Earth's surface.

Laika was a three–year–old stray from the streets of Moscow. Her claim to fame is that she was the first dog – in fact the first living creature – to orbit the Earth. Official reports at the time said she was euthanized before her oxygen ran out, but it was revealed in 2002 that she died within hours of launch, from overheating, due to an unexplained system failure. In any case the spacecraft, Sputnik 2, was not retrievable and Laika was not intended to survive the flight. Sputnik 2 re–entered Earth's atmosphere 162 days after launch, on 14 April 1958, as its orbit decayed.

The first animals in space were fruit flies, aboard a German V–2 rocket launched on 20 February 1947 by the USA. They were recovered alive. The rocket reached an altitude of 68 miles (the same as the Soviet dogs Tsygan and Dezik would reach some four years later).

The first attempt to send a 'higher organism' into space was when a monkey named Albert was a passenger aboard another US–launched V–2 rocket. This mission failed on ascent, reaching only something between 30 and 39 miles (48 and 63 kilometres). Albert, needless to say, did not survive.

On 14 June 1949, a second monkey, named Albert II, was sent into space on board another US–launched V–2 rocket. This reached about 83 miles (134 kilometres). Albert died on its return to Earth owing to a parachute failure, but only after he'd become the first 'higher organism' to go into space.

On 31 August 1950, the US launched a mouse into space, aboard a V–2. The rocket reached an altitude of 85 miles (137 km), but (like the V–2 that carried Albert II) disintegrated because of parachute failure. The US launched several other mice in the 1950s, and into the 1960s they also launched numerous monkeys, of several species. The monkeys were implanted with sensors to measure vital signs, and many were under anesthesia during launch. The death rate among monkeys at this stage was very high: about two–thirds of all monkeys launched in the 1940s and 50s died on missions or soon after landing.

The aforementioned Tsygan and Dezik, launched on 22 July 1951, were the first 'higher organisms' to return safely from space, but Dezik died in another flight two months later, along with a third dog named Lisa. Tsygan was subsequently adopted as a pet by a Soviet physicist. Laika's orbital flight followed on 3 November 1957; at least ten other dogs were launched into orbit, and numerous others on sub–orbital flights, before Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on 12 April 1961.