Experts Claim Soviets Left Astronaut in Space and Covered It Up

Flying High

Animals were crucial for the first trips to space. Both the USSR and the US experimented with creatures. If you don’t count bacteria on the rocket, the first living things to go up were fruit flies. The Americans did that to see how radiation affected insects.

Flying High

Monkey Business

With time, complex creatures were sent to space. In 1949, the Americans sent a rhesus macaque called Albert II up there. He was the first mammal to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. Though he survived the launch, he died on the way home.

Monkey Business