They are the unsung heroes behind the exploration of manned spaceflight in the last century

On April 12, 1961, Soviet astronaut Gagarin took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Vostok 1 spacecraft, orbited the earth at a maximum altitude of 301 kilometers, took 1 hour and 48 minutes, and returned safely at 10:55 am, completing the world's first manned space flight.

However, before achieving this feat, humans actually rejected manned space flight because scientists at the time were not clear about the impact of long-term weightlessness on humans.

Therefore, in order to allow humans to enter space as safely as possible, scientists have to use some special methods, such as replacing a group of "animal astronauts."

America's Monkey and Chimpanzee Astronauts

On June 11, 1948, the United States launched a V2 rocket in New Mexico, but unlike previous launches, it carried a rhesus monkey named Albert. The main purpose of sending this little monkey into space was to evaluate the possible effects of space flight on organisms , and to analyze the impact of such effects on humans.

However, what was unfortunate for the monkey was that the rocket construction and launch command procedures were still in the experimental stage at that time. Unfortunately, the little monkey became a victim of the experiment.

Albert I

Just three days later, the V2 rocket was launched again from New Mexico, carrying the Albert II from the Air Force Laboratory. This time the rocket rose 133 kilometers and the rhesus monkeys on board behaved normally. However, during the return to the ground, the parachute did not open and the second monkey hit the ground directly and died.

Albert III and IV also failed to survive the flight, and Albert V once again suffered a parachute failure.

The United States subsequently conducted several more experiments on sending monkeys into space, but there were only a handful of successful samples and the experimental data obtained was not particularly complete.

It was not until 1961 that the United States finally gave up on rhesus monkeys and sent chimpanzees into space instead. The little chimpanzee, Ham, will take a Redstone launch vehicle into the Earth's suborbital flight.

According to the original plan, the rocket's flight orbit was to have an altitude of 186km and a speed of 7000km/h, but due to technical reasons, the spacecraft of the carrier rocket rose to an altitude of 252km and a speed of 9400km/h.

It seemed that Ham might also become a victim of the US space program (lack of technology), but Ham performed very well during the flight. After 16.6 minutes of weightless flight, Ham's lifeboat landed in the Atlantic Ocean 96km away from the predetermined point.

After Ham was recovered, the space center gave him a comprehensive examination and found that except for a little fatigue and dehydration, he was in good physical condition . After a thorough medical examination, Ham was sent to the Washington Zoo for exhibition, where he spent most of his life alone.

After its death, its statue was placed in front of the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to commemorate its paving the way for the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard. (A few months after Ham's mission, the United States sent astronaut Alan Shepard into space, but still one step behind the Soviet Union)

Soviet canine astronauts

The Soviet Union had taken notice when the United States began its Albert program, so Soviet rocket pioneer Sergei Korolev assembled a small team to begin preliminary testing based on American biomedical research.

Unlike the United States, which was obsessed with monkeys, the Soviet Union chose mice, rabbits, puppies, monkeys and other animals as passenger simulations and designed separate cabins for them. After the final testing phase, they chose puppies because they found that dogs were calmer during the flight and not as anxious as monkeys.

Among most of the Soviet Union's "canine astronauts", there is one who left a deep impression in history, not because of how great his contribution was, but because of his tragic "astronaut" career.

Most of the Soviet Union's "canine astronauts" were recruited from stray dogs in Moscow. Generally, smaller females were chosen because they were more docile and had a preliminary level of obedience.

After being selected, the dogs first need to live in small pressurized capsules for a few days to test their reactions to changes in air pressure and the loud noise when taking off.

In addition, the testers also equipped the candidate astronauts with an excretion device connected to the pelvis, but some dogs could not tolerate this device and were eliminated.

In the end, the test team chose Laika, who was very calm in all the tests, as the "chief astronaut" of the satellite 2, and a backup astronaut named Albina. Doctors then performed modification surgery on the two dogs and embedded medical devices in their bodies to monitor heartbeat, respiratory rate, blood pressure and body movement.

It seems that everything is ready, except for going to heaven, but unfortunately, fate has made things difficult for us.

In 1957, the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 was launched into Earth orbit ahead of the United States. In order to consolidate his leadership, Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev ordered Soviet engineers to build a second generation satellite within three weeks, and this time they had to carry living organisms.

There was no other choice, so engineers could only hastily design the second generation based on the first satellite. Its prototype and functions were mostly similar to the first generation, with only a small pressurized isolation cabin added.

A postcard from the 1958 Brussels World Expo showing the miniature pressurized chamber in which Laika rode

Shortly after reaching the Earth's suborbital spacecraft, Laika died due to the high temperature in the cabin. The reason was that the life of the heat insulation panel was only 6 to 7 hours. The most crucial thing was that the Soviet Union at that time had no idea how to get the space capsule back to Earth.

So from the very beginning, Laika was destined to stay in space forever .

The "Laika astronaut" in the sky was dead, but "it" on the ground was still alive. At that time, the Soviet radio station claimed that everything was normal after Laika entered space. A few days later, it was announced that Laika had died.

A total of 17 dogs died in the Soviet Union's canine space experiments from 1951 to 1966. However, in every space experiment, people hoped that all the animals would survive, except Laika.

French Kitten Astronaut

Many people may not know that France is the third country in the world to establish a civilian space agency after the United States and the Soviet Union . It’s just that the competition between the two giants is too fierce, so France has no presence most of the time.

While the United States and the Soviet Union were conducting animal space experiments, France also launched its own space program. Interestingly, French scientists did not use monkeys or dogs, they chose cats...

Cats are kept in boxes at the space research laboratory on Avenue Victor in Paris to train them to remain still for long periods of time during rocket flights.

The first batch of 14 kittens were selected. Testers implanted electrodes in the brain of each cat, and then had them participate in training activities similar to those of astronauts to observe their neural data .

In the end, the petite Félicette came out on top, remaining calm in all the tests, and won a ticket to space.

On October 18, 1963, Félicette was launched from Algeria aboard a Véronique rocket, which unexpectedly but predictably exploded 161 km above the Earth.

However, the French took good protective measures. After experiencing about 5 minutes of weightlessness in low-Earth orbit, Félicette began to descend to the ground. Just fifteen minutes later, the return capsule with a parachute landed successfully. When people arrived at the landing point and opened the cabin, they found that Félicette was still alive and well inside.

But the treatment it received after surviving was not as good as that of the previous chimpanzee (Ham). Two months later, French scientists wanted to examine its body to observe the impact of space flight on it, so they euthanized the only kitten that has been in space (so far).

Not long after Félicette's death, the kitten was almost forgotten until a British man accidentally learned of Félicette's story in 2017 and believed that this forgotten space cat should be properly commemorated.

So he launched a donation campaign on the famous crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and eventually raised $57,000 to create a bronze statue.

Unveiled in December 2019 at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, the bronze figure of Félicette stands on a statue of the Earth, her keen little eyes fixed on the sky, where she has been.

On the road of space exploration, the contribution of these animals is no less than that of humans who have entered space. They have sacrificed their lives to promote scientific and technological progress and paved the way for many attempts by humans to enter space.