Animals in Space
Science Grade 3, 5:43
The first space travelers weren’t people! Meet the fruit flies, monkeys, dogs, a cat, tortoises and tiny water bears who flew first.
What this lesson covers
Why Send Animals?
- Nobody knew if living things could survive space
- Big dangers: the rocket launch, weightlessness & radiation
- Scientists tested with animals first
1947: Fruit Flies
- The first animals in space!
- Launched from New Mexico on a V-2 rocket
1949: The First Monkey
- 1949: Albert II, a rhesus monkey
- First monkey & first primate in space
- His flight taught scientists a lot
1957: Laika
- Laika: a stray dog from Moscow
- Nov. 3, 1957: first animal to orbit Earth
1960: Belka & Strelka
- Aug. 19, 1960: two dogs launched into orbit
- First animals to orbit AND come home alive!
- Mice, rats, flies & plants flew too
1961: Ham the Chimp
- Jan. 31, 1961: Ham, a chimpanzee, flew for NASA
- He pulled levers in space to earn treats
1963: Félicette the Cat
- Oct. 18, 1963: France sends a cat to space
- Félicette: the first and only cat in space
- She returned safely by parachute
1968: Tortoises Around the Moon
- Sept. 1968: the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft
- Two tortoises flew all the way around the Moon
Spiders & Water Bears
- 1973: spiders on Skylab learned to spin webs while floating
- 2007: tiny tardigrades, or water bears, survived open space
Animals in Space Today
- Mice, fish, worms & jellyfish visit the space station
- Scientists study how bones & muscles change in space
- This helps astronauts AND people on Earth
Key words
- Orbit
- the curved path an object takes around a planet or star
- Microgravity
- the floating feeling in space, where things seem weightless
Check for understanding
- What were the first animals in space?
- Who was the first animal to orbit Earth?
- What animals flew around the Moon in 1968?
The video pauses here so the class can answer before the reveal.
Recap
- 1947: fruit flies, the first space animals
- 1957: Laika, the first to orbit Earth
- 1960: Belka & Strelka came home safe
- 1961: Ham, then Alan Shepard
- 1968: tortoises circled the Moon!
