Which were the first animals to be sent into space?
The first animals to be sent into near-space were fruit flies launched by the US in 1947. The first vertebrates sent into space were a series of ill-fated monkeys and mice in 1951. On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a dog named Laika aboard its Sputnik-2 spacecraft, making it the first animal to be sent into Earth's orbit.