Dog Laika was the first animal to go into space. This spacecraft was launched on board the Soviet Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Unfortunately, Laika died at the time the flight. The first rocket that was sent to space probably carried bacteria or some other passenger. But the first animals ever intentionally sent into space were fruit flies launched aboard a V2 rocket in 1947. US scientists were studying the effects of radiation at high altitude. A rhesus monkey known as Albert 1 became the first monkey launched into space on June 11, 1948.....Read more