What was the first animal in space?

I had always thought that the first animal that went to space was the dog Laika on November 3, 1957, but this is wrong. I did not even imagine that a small insect that hovers around fruits was actually the first animal that will have a space adventure.

Yes, you read that right, the first animals which went into space were some tiny fruit flies aboard the U.S - launched a V-2 rocket on February 20, 1947.

It was an experiment to test the presence of & the intensity of radiation as well. The rocket covered a distance of 109 km in 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

The fruit flies were injected with medicine, and it worked successfully, so after that adventure they were recovered alive. The scientists got the samples of their blood as well to carry out different experiments to get the information about changes after a space adventure.

Fruit flies were sent to a place where no living creature went before, and biological researchers wanted to know about the changes in genes at such high altitudes.

But why fruit flies?

Genetically, this species is very similar to human beings. About 75% of disease-causing genes in humans are also present in fruit flies genes as well. So it will be easier to read fruit flies genetic code after a space trip, and this reason is quite crucial for major experiments and theories for biological researchers.

This experiment brought a revolution in the field of genetic study. It was proved that humans could survive in this environment as well but under different circumstances.

What happened to fruit flies and Laika?

The fruit flies survived and came back to Earth with the aid of a parachute. If they were set free in space, they wouldn’t have survived because of zero gravity. But the fruit flies behave like humans in our space, and they don’t need to use their wings because of zero gravity, so they close their wings and fly with the air. Scientists were quite relieved that the fruit flies were alive after the adventure and there was no effect on their genes from cosmic radiation.

Laika the dog was the second animal that went to space, she died on the journey. She died within hours and the reason for that death because of overheating in flight as the temperature went to 100 Fahrenheit.