Animals Sent to Space
Animals from space include fruit flies, mice, dogs, cats, frogs, and chimpanzees. The Soviet Union and the United States sent many species aboard rockets and space stations to study how microgravity and radiation affect living organisms.
Why Animals Were Chosen
Scientists selected animals based on size, physiology, and similarity to humans. Small mammals and insects were easy to monitor, while primates helped researchers predict how human bodies might react to launch, weightlessness, and reentry.
What Space Animal Missions Revealed
Early missions showed that some species could survive launch and weightlessness, but many faced health issues such as bone loss, muscle atrophy, and radiation exposure. Data from these flights helped engineers design safer life support systems and procedures for human astronauts.
For more details on early animal spaceflight, see NASA's Animals in Space overview.
