The predictable list of animals that have been sent into space includes dogs, monkeys, rats, mice, rabbits, and fish.
No pigs, as of yet, but guinea pigs and pigtailed monkeys have all been put into orbit, as well as the eye lenses of pigs, cows, and sheep.
Some not-so-likely animal crew members have included jellyfish, bees, spiders, tortoises, hornets, wasps, and incubating quail eggs. Over the years, space programs have put pretty much everything imaginable into orbit to examine the effects of high speeds and weightlessness.
As a matter of fact, one of the very first launches in history was of a low-altitude, black-powder rocket in the early 1800s, which carried a feline and a squirrel a short distance into the air before parachuting back down. The rocket landed successfully with cat intact but no sign of the squirrel.
It seemed one of the passengers got mighty hungry on its short journey. Needless to say, cats haven’t been used much since then.
