CHAPTER 1 race for space E ver since humans first gazed up at the stars they have wanted to explore the vast darkness beyond Earth When space exploration began in 1957 it was dominated by two countries the United States and Russia Today many countries around the world have joined the race for space and private companies are planning space vacations and trips for space tourists in the near future GIANTS OF SPACE TRAVEL When the United States and Russia then known as the Soviet Union and the USSR launched their first space missions many failed but the race was on to be the first country to reach the Moon Both countries poured vast sums of money into their space programs launching one unmanned space mission after another These were craft sent into space to gather information without any crew onboard After that the race was on to be the first country to send a human into space 4
Ham was the first chimpanzee to be sent into space in January 1961 He returned to Earth safely ANIMALS IN SPACE One of the problems that both the United States and Russia had to figure out was how a human would cope in space where you do not feel the effect of Earth’s gravity Both countries chose to experiment using animals such as chimps monkeys rabbits and mice Electrodes were placed under the skin of the animals to monitor their heartbeat and breathing Many of them died in space or on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere SECRET EXPERIMENTS The experiments on animals were mostly kept a secret at the time because the governments thought that the suffering of the animals would outrage the public Recent reports have revealed that some of the training that was given to space animals such as dogs included being kept in smaller and smaller cages to get them used to small spaces DARK SCIENCE SECRETS Laika a stray dog taken from the streets of Russia became the first living creature to be sent into orbit in November 1957 She died in flight Russian officials claimed that she had died painlessly from natural causes in orbit However a recent report claims that she died of panic and overheating just a few hours after the rocket took off The report also states that she was put in a metal carrier inside the rocket cabin so that her body would not turn around in the weightless environment This is a statue of Laika at the space training center in Star City Russia 5
