Talk:Animals in space

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A fact from Animals in space appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 17 April 2004. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in addition to human spaceflight, there have been many animals in space, including monkeys, apes, mice, dogs, guinea pigs, frogs, rats, cats, tortoises, fish, newts, insects, snails, spiders and nematodes?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2004/April.

Wikipedia

It seems like we need to work on our parachutes

well, it looks like half the animals on this list died due to the fact that the parachute didn't open.

old

The link I copied it from said "Japanese killfish". Other sites have refered to "killifish". Are these the same? Are they the same as medaka? Rmhermen 22:35, Apr 16, 2004 (UTC)

i was/am also uncertain. Badanedwa 05:57, Apr 18, 2004 (UTC)

Just a nitpick if anyone cares, there's a comment about a chimpanzee being the first primate in space, but Alan Shepard apparently beat him there. And I'm pretty sure humans are primates. User:Thaddeus_Selden 17:26, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC).

I'm also pretty sure Gagarin beat Sheperd into space; and I think Soviet cosmonauts are primates too. Conquistador48134.50.14.31 14:36, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which is right?

The first animals The first animal in orbit was the Soviet dog Laika onboard Sputnik 2 on 3 November, 1957. Laika died during the flight. At least 10 other dogs were launched into orbit and numerous others on sub-orbital flights before April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. (See Russian space dogs)

is it just me, or do those two statments confradict each other? Or, is it that there were penty of animals befor Laika, but none of them went into orbit? if so, could someone edit Space race Animals in space section please tooto 17:34, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This is correct. Many animals went into space (over 100 km high, suborbital) before Laika who was the first to go into orbit. Both this article and Space race give the correct information. Rmhermen 19:54, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

Wouldn't this depend on how high you define "space"?

No this is using the international definition of space. Please in future ask questions on the talk page before changing the article. Rmhermen 13:49, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)

I also have questions about which animals were first in space.

The 1940's paragraph states "The first animals sent into space were fruit flies, accompanied by rye and cotton seeds aboard a U.S.-launched V2 rocket on February 20, 1947.[1][2][3] ...The Blossom capsule was ejected and successfully deployed its parachute. The fruit flies were recovered alive."

But then in the 1950's paragraph it states

"On July 22, 1951, the Soviet Union launched the R-1 IIIA-1 flight, carrying the dogs Tsygan (Russian: Цыган, "Gypsy") and Dezik (Russian: Дезик) into space, but not into orbit.[5] These two dogs were the first living organisms successfully recovered from a spaceflight"

IF we can believe the information in the 1940's paragraph, these two dogs were not the first "living organisms" to be recovered from space. They are the first mammals. Living Fruit Flies are considered living organisms are they not? For that matter the seeds would be also considering the wide definition of "living organisms".

Should the 1950's paragraph be edited to read first living mammals?

Or am I misunderstanding something? Throckmorton Guildersleeve (talk) 19:42, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mouse or monkey: which came first?

From this article: "Althought it´s higly probable that microbes survived the on the interior of the first man made object sent to space, the first living being intentionally sent to space was a mouse. On August 31, 1950 the U.S. launched a mouse into space (137 km) aboard a V2"

From monkeys in space: "Albert was followed by Albert II who survived the V2 flight but died on impact on June 14, 1949. Albert II became the first monkey in space as his flight reached 134 km (83 miles)."

If you read these two articles, it implies that the first animal sent into space was a mouse, who was sent over a year after the first monkey in space. So, which is correct? 198.164.41.62 01:46, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

[1]--WEKS 07:30, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

You did notice that that is the unvandalized version of our own article that you linked to! Rmhermen 14:09, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

The problem arose because a vandal erased the beginning of this article. I have now restored it. The first animal in space were fruit flies in 1946. Rmhermen 14:07, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

There was a link to "first man in space". I made it point to Yuri Gagarin directly. I don't know if that is the correct thing to do or if I should have made "first man in space" a forwarding page to Yuri Gagarin. But I didn't know how to do that so I thought this would suffice =)

Launch date for Sputnik 5

In this article the launch date for Sputnik 5 is given as August 12, 1960. But in the article Sputnik 5 the launch date is given as August 19, 1960. Could someone find out which is the right date and correct this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.114.102.202 (talk) 22:34, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That appears correct. I changed it in the article. Rmhermen (talk) 00:59, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I love this article, but make it easier to read. I cannot belive how long it is! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.127.4.208 (talk) 00:30, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

this article is not very long !? Polylepsis (talk) 14:32, 9 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pigs in space!

This page really needs a link to the Muppet Show's Pigs in Space classic (please...) http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Pigs_in_Space —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.36.99.137 (talk) 12:38, 6 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Lol, I have to agree that when I read the title of this page I immediately thought of Pigs in Space. But I don't see how this should be referenced anywhere here. Cyanid (talk) 17:16, 9 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Title modification

The title of this article does not meet the technical standard to be expected from an encyclopaedia. Perhaps, 'Non-Human organisms intentionally sent into outer space' would be more appropriate. The article could also be incorporated into other articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.241.67.195 (talk) 13:33, 6 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We are happy to talk about unintentional animal astronauts though! There have been some houseflies on the space shuttle I believe. Rmhermen (talk) 01:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism?

I quote:

"...with a United States Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo onboard."

Is that vandalism? I mean a U.S. Navy trained squirrel-monkey? Get real! So is it vandalism?

Mod mmg (talk) ~~—Preceding undated comment added 23:13, 6 February 2010 (UTC).~~ EDIT: Hate you SineBot![reply]

Why would that be vandalism? NASA was only six-months old and was still sending out purchase orders for rockets from the Army at this time. Gordo was stuck on an Army flight test of a medium range ballistic missile (the first test of its tactical ballistic shell configuration.) This was even before the Air Force took over missile command. Rmhermen (talk) 00:40, 8 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If this was more about the training aspect then the agency - Soviet space dogs (and some early cosmonauts) were merely monitored from Earth, while U.S. space monkeys were trained to push buttons. Both monkeys and dogs underwent flight training like human astronauts (confined spaces, centrifuges, etc.) The next monkey astronaut Able (but not Gordo) was given a button to push but apparently failed at the task due to inadequate training due to a change to use U.S.-born monkeys instead of the original Indian-born flight candidates.[2][3] Rmhermen (talk) 19:05, 8 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I see! Mod mmg (talk) 07:07, 10 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Argentina

The Argentine flights are underdocumented. Very little seems to be available online in English or Spanish and some of that is contradictory. For the first Bio I flight, Astronautica claims it was a U.S.-built Loki rocket flight, the much copied page from Reconquista y Defensa claims it was a modified Orion II and Argentine space researcher Pablo de Leon claims it was a Argentine-made "Yarara" rocket.[4] Some claims say that its final altitude was only 20km - hardly the edge of space. De Leon's book Historia de la Actividad Espacial en la Argentina only shows up in the Smithsonian collection and in the North Dakota University where he worked and so will be hard to check. Rmhermen (talk) 01:16, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Señor infórmese mejor. Existe amplia documentacioón de los vuelos argentinos, en especial en la revista "Aeroespacio", órganoo oficial de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina, en sus ediciones de los años 60 y 70. Deje de buscar por Internet desde la comodidad de su casa, levántese de su silla e investigue como corresponde. User: Alberto, 8/01/2020.- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:B07:A15:6F00:A8E2:FAC:D8F3:867A (talk) 12:18, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@User:Alberto. Please brief it in English. Thanks. Rasnaboy (talk) 13:45, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

1940s questionable

From what I know of most of the 1940s flights, they were high altitude, but it is questionable whether they got into Outer Space proper, as opposed to the fringes of the atmosphere. (ditto Chuck Yeager)--MacRusgail (talk) 14:20, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which is why we mainly discuss the missions which successfully pass the Karman Line (and a few other famous launches). Rmhermen (talk) 06:20, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I expanded the 1940s section to make this more clear. Rmhermen (talk) 19:35, 27 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note that Chuck Yeager is not associated with high altitude flights but with high-speed ones. You may have been thinking of the X-15 spaceplane program where 13 flights exceeded the U.S. space definition including two which exceeded the international definition. Rmhermen (talk) 19:34, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Which animals?

A bit of trivia, but it might be of interest to have a list of species known to have been sent into space.--MacRusgail (talk) 14:23, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have always worried that the article was already too list-like. All species that I have found mentioned are already included in the article. Rmhermen (talk) 06:20, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dates

The article Soviet space dogs says "Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, "Gypsy") were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on July 22, 1951", yet this article says "On January 29, 1951, the Soviet Union launched the R-1 IIIA-1 flight, carrying the dogs Tsygan (Russian: Цыган, "Gypsy") and Dezik (Russian: Дезик) into space". Which is it? AMCKen (talk) 02:30, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Good question, the best sources I can find after a brief look appear to confirm 22 July 1951 as the correct date. I have seen one or two less reliable sources state 29 July (perhaps confusing this with the subsequent failed flight with only Dezik and another dog) and perhaps in turn this changed to january. If it is indeed incorrect this has amazingly survived from 2004, it was in the article from the very beginning! 02:44, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Indeed; always good to do a bit of fact checking! I changed it to July 22, since that's what Siddiqi says. Mlm42 (talk) 19:18, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

China

This article is missing animal flight from China on the Shenzhou spacecreaft - mainly because we lack good sources. The Shenzhou II article is still unclear on what animals flew in 2001 or what their fate was. Even in the most recent EU/China biological experiments, all of the animals were poorly-explained Chinese-only experiments. One finds mention of Bulinus australianus, a spiral snail, but not a recognized species according to Wikipedia. Any new, good sources we be an improvement for this missing area. Rmhermen (talk) 17:20, 17 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cai monkey

The species identification of this Argentian astro-monkey is problemmatic. None of our few sources on this program mention a species and online sources sem to indicate that a cai monkey may be "a capuchin monkey" (which species?), a black-tufted capuchin (doesn't match image in [5]), or a spider monkey (which species?). Better Argentinian sources would be nice. Rmhermen (talk) 18:14, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

From googling around it looked like mono caí only refers to a kind of capuchin monkey. Since the latter phrase, though vague, is more common in English than "cai monkey" I wanted to change it. If Juan's Misiones Province origin is correct, he was a black capuchin (the only capuchin in the province). Compare Juan at 2:50 in this video with photos of less-hairy examples of the species here.--Cam (talk) 13:40, 13 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have found links which call "cai" a close releative of red and black howlers - which would be a spider monkey, not a capuchin. Rmhermen (talk) 18:31, 14 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lacking information?

It would seem like this page would seriously benefit by showing a list organized by animals themselves, and the observed effects? Simply knowing that some animals went up in each decade seems to do a huge injustice to this topic. Or should that be a whole other article in itself? Qwidjib0 (talk) 04:12, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article is, so far, mostly a list of first flights of various species. It does mention some of the effects on some of the species. Adding more of this would probably be good. But there have been thousands of papers written, most not easily accessible and some not at all. For instance, we still haven't really determined what animals Argentina and China launched. Some of the experiments have been to study adaptation to space but others have been medical research, so it isn't always a matter of effects on the species. A list of every time every species went into space would have to be a separate article, I think. Some species have been to space once, others dozens of times. (We do have separate articles for dogs and monkeys in space already.) I think we are in the hundreds of animal flights now. Rmhermen (talk) 20:29, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Señor, ya se lo he dicho, deje de buscar por Internet e infórmese mejor. La revista "Aeroespacio" de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina es una de las tantas fuenets que le puedo citar. Allí tiene detallados los vuelos y las experienciasd que se llevaron a cabo. Solo debe levantarse de la silla, salir de su casa y buscar en lugar de sacar conclusiones. Las ediciones de los años 60 y 70 están plagadas de información. User: Alberto, 8/01/2020.-

Fruit flies UK or USA

Hi
After reading a BBC article about the orbital sky-dive I decided to read up on a little factoid that was posted. It said that the first creatures into space were Fruit Flies on board a UK launched V2 rocket, yet this wiki page says that it was a US launched rocket. I searched the internet and found a wired article as well as a few [unreliable] websites stating it was a UK launch...yet at the same time I also found a few websites saying it was a US launch.

Which one was it? Below are the two articles that say UK launch.
Wired Article
BBC Article

I assume it was a US launch and a typo caused it to say UK on the BBC since I have never heard of a UK launch of fruit flies, still I am not exactly an expert in the field of rocket history. Mishka Shaw (talk) 11:23, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The BBC article says US-launched (at least, it does now.) Probably a simlpe typo. The Feb 20, 1947 launch was at White Sands, New Mexico with the experiment run by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Harvard University. The first citation in our text (a U.S. Navy medical document) gives the information. Rmhermen (talk) 13:50, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the UK only launched 3 or 4 V2's - all in 1945 and in Germany. Rmhermen (talk) 14:12, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sanitized

This is one of the most sanitized articles I've seen on Wikipedia. While tagged with "Animal Rights," it has pictures of happy animals and cute little humans and bugs. It's like they went willingly and experienced no suffering what so ever. Congrats on the editors! Mehmetaergun (talk) 19:05, 12 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sputnik 5 rabbit?

The article says that sputnik 5 had 2 dogs and a rabbit among the other mice, rats and plant and insect samples, but the source at http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/handle/123456789/9288 makes no mention of a rabbit, only samples of rabbit and human skin. I haven't seen the entire video from the mission but clips mostly focus on the dogs. Can anyone verify if a rabbit was actually onboard the flight? Legomationer (talk) 19:02, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The "animals and man in space" source does not mention rats or rabbits. [6] mentions a grey rabbit and rats among others. Rmhermen (talk) 05:06, 25 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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Missing Information

This article gives us the animals that have been launched into space and even sometimes the exact expedition, but we don't really get to see why the animals were sent to space or what we learned by sending these animals to space. Is there a reason that this information hasn't been added or will this need to be added to the article?

-Biggerstaffjustin (talk) 01:50, 12 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Should we change the title to non-human animals in space?

This would be consistent with the lead. Apokrif (talk) 00:45, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The current title meets all five WP:CRITERIA. Adding "non-human" would violate the conciseness and consistency criteria and wouldn't be an improvement. It's OK to be precise in the first sentences and say "non-human" (although I think we're overdoing a bit in the lead by saying it three times), but in common use the word "animal" almost always means "non-human animal" anyway. See titles like Animals in sport, Animals in the Bible, Animal testing, Animal rights etc. — Chrisahn (talk) 02:50, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Come to think of it, I went ahead and removed "non-human" from the lead. It's not necessary. — Chrisahn (talk) 03:03, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Enos the chimp

This sentence: "Enos became the first and only chimpanzee to reach orbit on 29 November 1961, in another Mercury capsule, an Atlas rocket, Mercury-Atlas 5." seems out of place at the end of a paragraph about Ham the chimpanzee. I don't know where to move it to, though. Please, can someone accept the task? The B-Double (talk) 09:41, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Done, thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:04, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

List

This article is very informative but very long and you have to read through every paragraph to find each animal and it's species and if it died, etc. I think a list form (like List of spaceflight-related incidents) would be good, whether that be in a new article, appended to this one, or something else. just an idea to make the information easier to sort through Henriio (talk) 01:42, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]