Humans weren’t the only ones who went to space

Born on August 5, 1930, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, according to Wikipedia. Armstrong landed on the moon July 20, 1969. During the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong was only able to stick the flag seven inches into the moon’s surface. Neil died August 25, 2012, but he has gone down in history.

On December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 saw the last moon landing. According to Business Insider, humans haven’t returned to the moon due to budgetary and political hurdles (https://rb.gy/1aeoik), although more space exploration has happened since that day nearly 50 years ago.

Before people went into space, there were a few other creatures that braved the great beyond. Albert II was the first monkey to go into space and his flight took place on June 4, 1949. Albert reached an altitude of 83 miles (134 km). Unfortunately, he didn’t survive. Another monkey, Albert I, was sent to space, but died when the V-2 rocket failed to reach peak altitude.

Fruit flies had already been sent up in 1947, and a mouse was launched in 1950. In that decade, the Russian space program launched a dozen stray dogs into suborbital space, one at a time. Monkeys, cats and rabbits were also launched into space by different countries, but it wasn’t until two dogs survived a trip on the Russian Sputnik in 1960 that human travel could seriously be considered (https://rb.gy/5kaemc).

A Tesla is currently in space and can be view livestreams of it on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M. In the livestream you will spot a mannequin with one arm out of the window of the vehicle. The car was launched into space February 6, 2018 and nine months later it reached beyond the orbit of Mars according to Wikipedia. Right now, the vehicle is 215.6 million miles away from Earth and is traveling at a speed of more than 6,000 miles per hour.