Biology in space   Animals were the real ‘first space explorers' journeying into space even before humans did. For instance, on the second satellite launched into space; the Sputnik 2, contained a dog called Laika (Laika was put to sleep after several days due to the then problems of re-entry survival). The purpose of this historic mission was to gauge the survivability of animals in space so as to prepare for humans to be sent. Monkeys were one of the favourite animal test subjects due to their close resemblance to humans. One of the United States first attempts to send an animal (squirrel monkey) into high altitudes ended in failure when the Jupiter rocket that it (the monkey) was in was lost at sea when the rocket had fallen back to Earth. In December 1959 a monkey called Sam flew in a prototype of the Mercury space capsule (the spacecraft in which the first American astronauts flew) successfully flew to an altitude of 85km and was safely recovered. In 1960 the USSR sent two dogs called Belka and Strelka into orbit on the Vostok rocket, along with 2 rats, 28 mice and numerous insects, plants and seeds. The mission was a total success in that the animals were recovered alive and healthy; this marked the first live recovery mission in space history; the prerequisite to manned space flight. In the subsequent eighth month following this feat, the USSR launched the first human into space; Yuri Gagarin in the Vostok 1.   Over the next several decades, biological specimens such as spiders, eggs, monkeys, fruit flies, seeds and many others took part in space missions and experiments. For instance, spiders were tested if weightlessness affected their ability to make webs. At first their webs were in disarray and merely resembled a tangled mess of spider silk, however after a few attempts, the spiders finally created a proper web that looked like the webs on Earth. Eggs were brought into space to see if they hatched in weightless situations; a few did but a few didn’t. Several plants were successfully grown from seeds and the seeds that the space-plants developed were either sent back to Earth for analysis or replanted to create the second generation space plants. An underlying purpose of these experiments was to see if it were possible to reproduce, grow and live normally in space so that future generations of humans may do so too.   Throughout space history, animals had to bear the brunt of repeated space experiments and tests in order to make sure that the humans have adequate forewarnings towards dangers, risks and events that may occur. Pioneering the frontier of space exploration; animals too should be remembered for their contribution towards the development in this field.