Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 July 8

= July 8 =

The first higher living organisms to survive orbit in outer space: Able & Baker OR Belka & Strelka?
I feel like I'm going crazy, so many source keep saying that Belka & Strelka Soviet space dogs were the first higher life forms to be recovered alive after traveling in space. But Korabl-Sputnik 2 was on 19 August 1960 (Belka and Strelka's mission) while Jupiter AM-18 (Able & Baker) was 28 May 1959. They all came back to earth alive. As one is monkeys and the other dogs, they are both higher organisms, right? Why does everywhere, including Wikipedia keep saying the one in 1960 came first. The American source (https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/blazing-trail-space) says they traveled some 480 km (300 miles) up which is into orbit, while what I've been able to read in English about Russia is saying (https://www.drewexmachina.com/2020/08/19/korabl-sputnik-2-the-first-animals-recovered-from-orbit/) 306 by 339 kilometer orbit.

It seems that Belka & Strelka were the first to reach *orbit* rather than sub-orbit. This is not a height above earth, hence my confusion as both pass the Kármán line, but a speed needed to complete one orbital revolution (and become an artificial satellite) or reach escape velocity. It seems very strange to me that one should be considered the first animal in space to be safely returned and not the other as both were in space. Would editing to mention that one was the first in space, and the other the first in orbit, (and then recovered) make sense?

PS I know there were fruitflies before that, but those aren't higher organisms Lover of Blue Roses (talk) 18:29, 8 July 2022 (UTC)


 * I think animals in space covers this appropriately. —Kusma (talk) 18:43, 8 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Reaching orbit and safely returning is much, much harder than just reaching space on a suborbital trajectory. A suborbital spaceflight is pretty much a non-event (although Richard Branson may think otherwise). The Jupiter missile and capsule were not the precursors for manned spaceflight, whilst the Soviet mission put a dog cage in basically the same vehicle as later used by Gagarin to demonstrate its safety. The flight of Able and Baker was mostly irrelevant to development of spaceflight. That's why people tend to ignore it. PiusImpavidus (talk) 20:23, 8 July 2022 (UTC)


 * There had also already been Soviet suborbital flights with dogs that safely returned well before Able and Baker. So even if you don't require orbit, Able and Baker still weren't the first. --Amble (talk) 21:03, 8 July 2022 (UTC)