[Music] we often hear about astronauts who've gone into or returned from orbit each such flight is a test of strength a huge risk defying the laws of physics but humans aren't the first living beings to have been in space the real pioneers were animals different creatures from mice to monkeys opened the door to the stars for humanity but what happened to them scientists don't like to talk about it and it's not for no reason in this video you'll learn the fate of the real first cosmonauts you'll find out what information is usually suppressed and the
reason for this secrecy you'll find out what actually led to successfully sending a person into space and what the true price of progress is progress that's measured in the lives of animals before sending people into space we needed to find out its effect on living beings but we couldn't risk people's lives right away so animals came to the rescue they've been used in aeronautical research since the late 18th century back then a ram a duck and a rooster were sent up in a balloon every single one of the participants in these experiments survived in general
that's nothing surprising but let's move beyond the era before the airplane we're interested in space the first living creatures specially sent into space were common fruit flies they traveled aboard an american v2 rocket and returned to earth alive the overload didn't hurt such tiny creatures and then two years later a monkey was sent into space it was necessary to study the effect of microgravity on the vertebrate organism and what could be closer to a human than a monkey the subject was a rhesus macaque named albert ii albert the first was also sent up and could
have become the first ape in space but its rocket didn't go high enough at the same time almost all of the documentation related to the flight is missing perhaps for a reason albert ii's flight ended tragically the parachute failed the macaque crashed upon landing and this animal wasn't the only victim at the time scientists tried sending apes into space quite often they were implanted with different sensors the animals were given a sedative before launch the mortality rate among monkeys at this stage was very high about two-thirds of them died on missions or shortly after landing
now imagine these numbers for launches involving people the first mouse in space also turned out to be a sacrifice the v2 rocket it was flying in crashed other space mice were also unlucky few of them could have expected to live long and happy lives but this was only the beginning on the 22nd of july 1951 the soviet union launched a rocket to an altitude of 101 kilometers or 62 miles with dogs named segan and diezek on board these were the first superior animals to survive such a flight information about these dogs was kept in the
strictest secrecy for 40 years only then did it become clear that desert only lived one week after he returned to earth he died on his next mission sigon was more fortunate he lived another 10 years but there was a trip to orbit ahead and this one was fatal an ordinary stray dog named laika became the first animal to enter the orbit of our planet at first she spent a long time in the onboard mockup and before the flight she also underwent an operation to implant breath and pulse sensors but scientists already knew that leica wouldn't
return to earth in orbit about seven hours after launch she died this was due to overheating and tremendous stress it's simply impossible to imagine how does it feel for a small dog to be in orbit when it's completely surrounded by lifeless dangerous space some believe that the lack of a thermal regulation system is to blame for leica's death according to another version she died as a result of an interruption in her oxygen supply there are many possibilities some more terrible than others with the dog's body on board the satellite made more than 2 000 orbits
around the planet before burning up in the atmosphere people were told about leica as if she was still alive the truth was revealed much later after leica's flight scientists attempted sending other dogs monkeys rabbits frogs and mice into space not all managed to even leave the ground the rockets often exploded during launch but this didn't stop scientists efforts after leica's tragic flight they decided to send other dogs into orbit they needed to be two lightly colored and pretty females the former to make them more visible on the monitors the latter so the dogs would look
good in photos to do this the mutt dogs belka and strelka were chosen after heavy training they spent about 25 hours in orbit and they were able to return alive this made belka and strelka stars of space exploration sometime later after landing strelka gave birth to six healthy puppies both dogs lived in an aviary at the institute until the end of their days they never went into space again but why dogs why do these animals play such an important role in space exploration they're easily trainable and have good health and can easily survive even in
terrible conditions there have been some famous apes as well ham became the first chimpanzee astronaut he helped scientists prove that simple tasks can be performed in space hamm's fate can be called lucky he survived after his flight he lived in various zoos for 17 years there's a grave in the museum of space history in memory of him finally it was time to take a chance on april 12 1961 yuri gagarin became the first human to go into space it seemed that experimenting on animals was finished but in 1969 the macaque bonnie was supposed to spend
a month in orbit but his health drastically deteriorated and he had to be returned to earth a day after landing bonnie died despite this his flight helped people better understand the impact of space on the body many animals have been in space only about 30 monkeys have been sent the exact number of dogs that the ussr has launched into space is probably impossible to count but there were still other creatures felicet became the first cat to visit outer space to monitor her condition during the flight electrodes were implanted in felicet's brain the astro cat was
able to enter zero gravity and make it back alive after the flight scientists studied felicet for several months and then unfortunately she died and here's an interesting fact all of the cats involved in that space program had no names this was done so that scientists didn't get attached to the animals but after her successful flight fella set received her name turtles have also conquered space they were one of the first earth creatures to fly around the moon bion 7 had 10 newts on board they'd had part of their front limbs amputated this is how scientists
studied regeneration rates in space in 1990 china launched guinea pigs into space in the future it will become less likely that people resort to using mammals these days they're using insects amphibians and other such creatures most of which have returned to earth alive over time space travel is becoming safer for all of us throughout the history of space exploration people have used animals but despite the losses these animals have taught scientists a lot these furry astronauts gave their lives in the name of technological progress and they opened the way to the stars for us if
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