The early celebrities of space travel were Russian dogs and American primates. Many creatures lost their lives in humanity’s historic race to reach the moon, but the animals had no choice about being part of history. It was an impressive achievement, but Sarah L’Estrange asks whether it was worth it.

Animals were famously launched into space during the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, but space research with animals continues to this day.

In December 2013 and then again in January 2014, Iran claimed it had successfully sent a monkey into space. Iran aims to have a manned launch by 2020 and the use of these monkeys is part of its program. However, the claims that the monkeys returned to earth safely were disputed after it appeared a different monkey was presented to the media after the return one of the spacecraft.

These chimpanzees are the latest in a long line of animal astronauts. Cats, monkeys, dogs, mice, turtles, fish, ants, bees, frogs, worms, crickets, guinea pigs have stepped into the great unknown, and recently even fish caught a ride on the International Space Station.

All of those early chimpanzees that took part in space research were captured from the wild, which meant killing their mothers. There was a huge dent made on the populations in West Africa for this kind of research. Jane Goodall

Fruit flies were the first living creatures we propelled into space at the end of the 1940s, as the dust was settling on World War 2 and the Cold War was getting under way between Russia and the USA.

Colin Burgess has documented the many animals that have been to space in his book Animals in Space, co-written by Chris Dubbs.

‘In that formative decade when the development of powerful new rockets took us on the steady path to the long held dream of space travel, those animals played a critical role in answering the most fundamental questions we had about space flight,’ says Burgess.

Scientists used the animals to determine if it was possible to survive rocket flight, weightlessness and exposure to cosmic radiation.

The Soviets used street dogs in their program because they believed they were survivors, were tough and could withstand the rigours of training and the cold. The Americans, on the other hand, used monkeys, which they trained to do tasks during space flight.

‘The Russians looked to survival, the Americans looked at the future of astronauts in space,’ says Burgess.

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One of the early stars of space travel was one of the Russian dogs. On November, 1957, Sputnik 2 was launched, carrying a stray dog known as Laika, nicknamed Muttnik by the Americans. Laika had been given intensive training to become accustomed to the confined area of the spacecraft and cope with the centrifugal forces she would experience on takeoff. Before the launch, Laika was attached to her harness and placed in the capsule of the satellite. It was only ever going to be a one way trip for her.

‘Laika was launched amid a great deal of publicity and a lot of sympathy went up around the world because there was this little dog in space,’ says Burgess.

‘But animal welfare groups were enraged at the fact that they’d sent this dog into space with no means of retrieval. At that stage the Russians didn’t have the capability to bring a space craft back to earth safely with parachutes.’

One of the common misconceptions about Laika’s historic space flight is that she was alive weeks after Sputnik 2 took off. Burgess says this was not the case.

‘Unfortunately there was a problem with the separation of the first stage booster from the capsule about two hours after launch and some of the insulation was ripped from Laika’s capsule,’ he says. ‘She actually died of heat prostration within a couple of hours of launch.’

Laika’s space coffin eventually burned up in the atmosphere in 1958 after over 2,000 orbits of the earth. Meanwhile, the Americans had resumed testing monkeys in space after a hiatus in the mid ‘50s due to concerns about animal welfare.

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The space monkeys were usually anesthetised for their missions, as they weren’t expected to do any activities in space, unlike the later chimpanzees. The monkeys were placed in tiny capsules to restrict their movement; photographs from the ‘50s make them look like they’ve been packed into a can of sardines. Two of the most famous monkeys were Able and Baker, who in 1959 were launched in the tip of a missile and made it back to earth.

After Able and Baker, the next American space superstars were two chimpanzees known as Ham and Enos. In January 1961, Ham successfully completed a sub-orbital flight and then in November of that year, Enos completed an orbital flight around the world.

Enos died soon after his mission but Ham lived another 17 years. ‘He’s now buried outside of the space museum of Alamogordo,’ says Burgess. ‘There’s a plaque to show what Ham achieved and people leave little gifts of bananas.’

There’s a famous picture of Ham after his return to earth which shows him grinning from ear to ear, seemingly happy that the mission was a success, but primatologist Jane Goodall has a different interpretation of this image.

‘That is the most terror I have ever seen on the face of any chimpanzee,’ she says. ‘That photograph is shocking.’

Goodall had the chance to meet some of the Mercury astronauts and recalls their belief that the chimpanzees’ training was much more difficult than their own. ‘I think they were slightly irritated that a chimpanzee was the first to go up into space,’ she says.

In all likelihood, Ham and Enos were snatched from their mothers when they were young.

‘All of those early chimpanzees that took part in space research were captured from the wild, which meant killing their mothers,’ says Goodall. ‘There was a huge dent made on the populations in West Africa for this kind of research.’

It’s one of the hidden costs of the awesome achievement of landing on the moon. Burgess says that without these early pioneers, the landing might not have happened when it did.

‘I think it was worth it,’ he says. ‘Those animals during those pioneering years—the dogs of the Soviet space program and the monkeys and chimpanzees of the American space effort—they were treated very much like astronauts, undergoing vigorous training, subjected to dangers and even strong media attention just like their human counterparts.’

‘It was necessary to know, before we sent people into space, that they could survive the rigours of spaceflight.’

Animalnauts: animals in space Sunday 24 August 2014 Listen to this episode of Animal People to find out more. More This [series episode segment] has image,

Today, there have been improvements in the way animals are treated in space research. There are even international guidelines known as The International Animal Welfare Agreement for Space Borne Research.

In the US, such research is now conducted according to the NASA Principles for Ethical Care and Use of Animals. These guidelines cover rodents, which are now the highest order animals sent into space by the US. The US Air Force stopped using chimpanzees in the 1990s.

Jane Goodall, meanwhile, is philosophical about the use of chimpanzees in the space program.

‘I think that what has happened has happened and we had better make the most of any animal suffering by pointing out how incredible it is.’

Animal People delves into the complex relationship between humans and animals.



