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Animal Astronauts A listing of the animals that paved the way for human space flight Part 2

The second part of our Animal Astronaut listing covers all biological suborbital and orbital test flights between November 3, 1957 - the first orbital flight of an animal - and April 12, 1961 - the date of the first human space flight.

Click here to return to part 1.

November 3, 1957 Laika

Sputnik 2 First animal in earth orbit. On November 3, 1957, the world's second satellite, launched from Baikonur, Soviet Union, carried the first living being into earth orbit. There were no plans to recover Laika, but she was expected to live for at least one week. Instead, Laika died within hours from overheating.

February 21, 1958 Palma & Pushok

R-5A No. 1 An R-5 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Palma and Pushok to an altitude of 400 km. The dogs died when their cabin decompressed. Some sources (Encyclopedia Astronautica, Sixties City) report doubt as to whether this flight actually took place.

August 2, 1958 Kusachka & Palma II

R-2A No. 20 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Kusachka and Palma II to an altitude of 211 km.

August 13, 1958 Kusachka & Palma II

R-2A No. 21 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Kusachka and Palma II on their second flight together to an altitude of 212 km.

August 27, 1958 Pyostraya & Belyanka

R-5A No. 5 An R-5 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Pyostraya and Belyanka to an altitude of 450 km.

October 31, 1958 Shulba Knopka II

R-5A No. 7 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Shulba and Knopka II to an altitude of 410 km. Due to a parachute failure, the dogs died returning on impact. There are no pictures of the animals

December 13, 1958 Gordo

Jupiter AM-13 - Bioflight 1 Squirrel monkey Gordo was launched in the nose cone of a Jupiter MRBM and reached a record altitude of 500 km. Gordo was in a weightless state for 8.3 minutes, he experienced a 10g pressure in takeoff, and a 40g pressure upon reentry. Gordo survived the flight but was lost at sea when the the float mechanism attached to the nose cone malfunctioned.

April 24, 1959 Minnie

Thor-Able Re-entry 1 MIA (Mouse-in-Able) was a project to test the heat shield of the early Thor-Able ICBM. It was also part of testing life support systems for the Man-in-Space-Soones program of the US Air Force. The rocket, carrying a mouse in the nose-cone, exploded after 150 seconds. There are no authentic pictures of the animal. A separate flight on April 21, reported by Encyclopedia Astronautica is actually identical with this flight.

May 28, 1959 Able & Baker

Jupiter AM-18 - Bioflight 2 Rhesus monkey Able (top picture) and squirrel monkey Baker (bottom picture) rode in the nose cone of a Jupiter MRBM to an altitude of 483 miles and a over a distance of 2,400 km. At a top speed of 4.5 km/s, they withstood accelerations of 38 g and were weightless for about nine minutes. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition, but Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anesthesia while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode.

June 3, 1959 4 Black Mice

Discoverer 3 Four mice on board a surveillance satellite where killed when the upper rocket stage misfired, driving the space vehicle into the Pacific. It was the only Discoverer mission to carry a biological payload. There are no pictures of the animals

July 2, 1959 Otvazhnaya Snezhinka Marfusha

R-2A No. 23 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Otvazhnaya (picture) and Snezhinka and the first space rabbit, Marfushka (picture) to an altitude of 220 km.

July 10, 1959 Lasker

Thor-Able Re-entry 2 A Thor-Able ICBM took mouse Lasker on a ballistic trajectory to a record altitude of 1,600 km and over a distance of 6,000 km. The mouse survived 60G launch acceleration and 45 minutes of weightlessness but the recovery team failed to locate the returned nose cone in the ocean. After two day of search, Lasker was declared "lost at sea.". There are no authentic pictures of the animal.

July 10, 1959 Otvazhnaya & Zemchuznaya

R-2A No. 24 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Otvazhnaya and Zemchuznaya to an altitude of 100 km. For a picture of Otvazhnaya see R-2A No. 23. There is no picture of Zemchuznaya, who was actually the renamed Snezhinka.

July 23, 1959 Wilkie

Thor-Able Re-entry 3 A Thor-Able ICBM took mouse Wilkie on a ballistic trajectory to an altitude of 1,600 km and over a distance of 6,000 km. Again, the recovery team failed to locate the returned nose cone in the ocean and Wilkie was declared "lost at sea" two days later. There are no authentic pictures of the animal.

September 15, 1959 14 Mice

Jupiter AM-21 - Bioflight 3 Fourteen mice, along with other biological specimens were killed when a Jupiter IRBM rocket exploded 13 seconds after launch. There are no authentic pictures of the animal.

December 4, 1959 Sam

Little Joe 2 In a test of the Mercury space capsule, rhesus monkey Sam reached an altitude of 85 km and was recovered safely.

January 21, 1960 Miss Sam

Little Joe 1B In a test of the Mercury space capsule, rhesus monkey Miss Sam reached an altitude of 14 km and was recovered safely.

June 15, 1960 Otvazhnaya & Malek Zvezdochka

R-2A No. 27 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Otvazhnaya and Malek together with rabbit Zvezdochka to an altitude of 212 km.

June 23, 1960 Otvazhnaya & Zemchuznaya

R-2A No. 28 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Otvazhnaya and Zemchuznaya on their third flight together to an altitude of 212 km. For a picture of Otvazhnaya see R-2A No. 23. There is no picture of Zemchuznaya.

July 28, 1960 Chaika & Lisichka

Korabl-Sputnik (2) In the first attempted flight of the Vostok 1K manned spacecraft prototype, the rocket exploded on the launch pad. Dogs Chaika and Lisichka perished in the explosion of the rocket.

August 12, 1960 Ham

Mercury-Redstone 2 In a test of the Mercury space capsule, Chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid in space, performing a successful ballistic flight, reaching an altitude of 253 kilometers.

August 20, 1960 Belka & Strelka Rabbit, Rats and Mice

Korabl-Sputnik 2 On August 19, the Soviet spacecraft took two dogs, Belka and Strelka, a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants to orbit and returned them safely a day later. It was the first successful return of animals from orbit. There are pictures of the dogs, but no pictures of the other animals.

September 16, 1960 Palma II & Malek

R-2A No. 33 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Palma II and Malek to an altitude of 210 km. For a picture of Palma II see R-2A No. 20. For a picture of Malek see R-2A No. 27.

September 22, 1960 Otvazhnaya & Neva

R-2A No. 34 An R-2 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, U.S.S.R. carried dogs Otvazhnaya and Neva to an altitude of 210 km. It was Otvazhnaya's fifth flight; the highest number of space flights performed by any animal. For a picture of Otvazhnaya see R-2A No. 23. There is no picture of Neva.

October 13, 1960 Sally, Amy & Moe

Atlas D Research and development test # 29 An Atlas D ICBM, carrying three black mice – Sally, Amy and Moe – in its nose cone was launched from Cape Canaveral and reached an altitude of 1,046 km to investigate the effect of radiation from the Van Allen belts on living beings. It was the furthest any animals had been into space at that point. This flight has been largely overlooked by most online sources. Best source is this newspaper article. There is a NASA First Day Letter Cover (picture) of the flight but no picture of the actual animals.

December 1, 1960 Pchyolka & Mushka

Korabl-Sputnik 3 Dogs Pchyolka and Mushka and "other animals, plants and insects" performed a one day-long orbital flight. The space craft was destroyed by a self-destruct mechanism when it overshoot its landing site and was going to land in foreign territory. To date, Pchyolka and Mushka are still the last dogs who died in a Soviet/Russian space experiment.

December 22, 1960 Zhulka & Zhemchuzhnaya Mice

Korabl-Sputnik (4) Intended as an orbital flight, the spaceship re-entered the atmosphere after reaching a sub-orbital apogee of 214 km due to an upper-stage rocket failure. The return capsule was recovered after two days in freezing temperature with the mice frozen to death but both dogs still alive. There are pictures of the dogs, but no pictures of the other animals.

February 22, 1961 Hector

Veronique Life Science mission 1 Less than two months before the first manned space flight, France became the third nation to send an animal beyond the 100 km boundary of space. On board a Véronique rocket launched from Hammaguira, Algeria, rat Hector reached an altitude of 152 km on a ballistic trajectory. Some sources call Hector the first rat in space, but that honor goes to the two unnamed rats on board of Korabl-Sputnik 2.

March 9, 1961 Chernushka Mice, Frogs Guinea Pig

Korabl-Sputnik 4 In a rehersal for the flight of Vostok 1, Dog Chernushka, acompanied by some mice, frogs and (most likely for the first time) a guinea pig performed one orbit before being safely recovered. There are pictures of the dog, but no pictures of the other animals.

March 25, 1961 Zvezdochka

Korabl-Sputnik 5 In the last animal experiment before the manned Vostok 1 flight, Dog Zvezdochka performed one orbit before being safely recovered. Also on board was a life-sized astronaut dummy to test the cosmonaut's ejection seat.

April 10, 1961 Two white mice

Meteor RM-2C and RM-2D During tests of the Meteor sounding rocket, a biological experiment was carried out with two previously trained white mice. The mice were tested to withstand an acceleration of 20 g. On April 10, 1961, two rockets were launched 45 minutes apart, reaching an altitude of 1580 meters. The mice were recovered unharmed.

The third part of our Animal Astronaut listing covers all biological suborbital and orbital test flights between April 12, 1961 - the date of the first human space flight and August 30, 1983 - the first time animals were carried on the Space Shuttle.

Click here to move on to part 3.

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