Before Yuri Gagarin made it out to space as the first man, the Soviet Union wanted to see just hospitable the earth’s orbit was to life – and to test out the life-supporting capabilities of its spacecraft. Several volunteers were chosen for this mission including a guinea pig and a dog. The “mutnik” Chernushka bravely donned a spacesuit (with a little help from the human minders) and blasted off.

On this day, March 9, in 1961 the capsule from the Soviet satellite Sputnik-9 splashed down in the waters of the Soviet Union. Inside was little Chernushka, unharmed, if still a little bewildered.

The U.S. had primates in flight for more than a decade before that. 1952, NASA sent two Philippine monkeys, Patricia and Mike, up 36 miles up at at 2000 mph in a small Aerobee rocket. Patricia and Mike were the first two monkeys to reach such a high altitude, and they were joined aboard by two white mice, Mildred and Albert, who unlike the strapped-in monkeys were free to “float” in weightlessness. The section carrying the animals safely parachuted back to earth, and both Patty and Mike lived to eat many more bananas.