Spaceflight Test Animals 1

Description

Spaceflight test animals, photo; Licensed article; Original: 5740×4315; Photographer: Unknown; subject to licensing; Rights: a9 Bleek/zb Media. The photo shows test animals from the Soviet space programs, which were sent into space for scientific experiments in the 1950s and 1960s.
– Dogs like Laika, Belka, and Strelka: Particularly well-known is Laika, who flew into space in 1957 with Sputnik 2 as the first living being. Later, Belka and Strelka (1960) returned as the first animals from an orbital flight alive.
– Monkeys, mice, and other animals: Besides dogs, the Soviet Union also tested other animals to investigate the effects of weightlessness and spaceflight on the organism.
These experiments provided important insights for manned spaceflight and paved the way for Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight in 1961.