Space beckons us - this statement is indisputable. General facts about the attempts of mankind to conquer its boundless spaces are known to everyone to one degree or another. One of the most striking examples is Belka and Strelka, the famous astronaut dogs who were the first to be able to return from a difficult and dangerous extraterrestrial journey alive and unharmed. But these are far from the only animals that have been in space. Ask any of your acquaintances: "Which animals were the first to circle the moon?" A person who can give the correct answer to this question will have to be carefully looked for.
Scientists' little helpers
The first living organisms in space were just fruit flies sent by the Americans in 1947 to study the effects of radiation at high altitude. They returned safe and sound, in their specially equipped capsule, which landed with the help of a parachute.
Their mission was continued by monkeys Albert-1 and Albert-2 (USA), as well as about a dozen dogs (USSR). Also on the list of fluffy astronauts is one single cat, Felicette. She was sent into orbit in France in 1963. All animals tounfortunately, died during the flight.
And only after 12 years of attempts and experiments, Soviet scientists managed to return the fluffy cosmonauts back in complete safety. Belka and Strelka successfully flew around the Earth.
New achievements
The conquests continued, and the most important task of scientists was to study the satellite of our planet. Just as when launching aircraft into low Earth orbit, animals were the first to set off. Having flown around the Moon, they became the pioneers of a new space direction and approached the satellite as close as possible a few months before the American astronauts landed on it.
Which animals first flew around the moon
If we take into account only vertebrates, then turtles were the first to reach the earth's satellite. It is worth noting that they were representatives of a rare Central Asian species. The flight was made in September 1968 on the Soviet unmanned aerial vehicle Zond-5.
Don't be surprised which animals were the first to orbit the Moon. The choice of turtles for this role was by no means accidental. We stopped at them because they need very little oxygen to maintain their vital activity. In addition, the turtles needed almost no nutrients, as they spent most of the flight in a lethargic sleep.
Turtles weren't the only passengers on the drone. During the flight, it also containedexperienced "cosmonauts": Drosophila flies, some bacteria and plants.
Details of a dangerous journey
It is interesting to know not only which animals first flew around the moon, but also how they did it. The flight itself went without complications. The aircraft left the Earth's surface on September 15. The trajectory was first corrected at a distance of 325,000 km from the point of departure. Three days later (September 18) the ship circled the Moon at a distance of 1960 km from its surface. And on September 21, the device, weighing just over two tons, entered the earth's atmosphere at the second space speed.
Zond-5 successfully landed in the Indian Ocean. It was discovered in the laboratory of TsKBEM in Moscow, and from there it was handed over to scientists for further study. During the space travel, the turtles lost a small part of their weight, about 10%. As a result of large overloads, one of them lost an eye. But in general, the flight did not have a sharply negative impact on the he alth of passengers.
Unfortunately, the names of the astronaut turtles have remained unknown. Maybe that's why few people know about which animals flew around the moon first.
