Animals In Space

Before humans knew it was safe to go into space, they sent animals. Mainly monkeys,chimps and dogs. For many years scientists were afraid that humans  could not survive long periods of time in space. American and Russian scientists sent animals into space  in order to test each country's ability to launch a living organism into space and bring it back alive and unharmed.

The first animals in space were monkeys. Unfortunately, none of then came back to Earth alive. On June 11, 1948, Albert I, a rhesus monkey was launched into space in a V-2 Blossom from White Sands, New Mexico.  On June 14, 1949, Albert II, a live Air  Force Aeromedical Laboratory monkey went on the second V-2 flight and attained an altitude of 83 miles. Unfortunately, the monkey died on impact. On August 31, 1950, another V-2 was launched which carried a mouse that was photographed in flight but  did not survive impact. On December 12, 1949, the last V-2 monkey flight was launched at White Sands, Albert IV, a rhesus monkey. It was a successful flight and had no ill effects on the monkey until impact, when it died. 

On September 20, 1951, a monkey,Yorick, and eleven  mice were recovered at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. Yorick got a large amount of press as the first monkey to live through a space flight.

Yorick, the first monkey to survive a rocket trip! On May 22, 1952, two Philippine monkeys, Patricia and Mike, were enclosed in an Aerobee  at Holloman Air Force Base. Patricia was placed in a seated position and Mike in a prone position to determine differences in the effects of rapid acceleration. They were fired 36 miles up at a speed of 2000 mph. These two monkeys were the first primates to reach such a high altitude. Also on this flight were two white mice, Mildred and Albert. They were inside a slowly rotating drum where they could "float" during the period of weightlessness. The section containing the animals was recovered from the upper atmosphere by parachute safely. Patricia died of natural causes about two years later and Mike died in 1967, both at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC.