What Was the First Animal Launched into Space?
While many people believe that Laika the dog was the first creature to enter the final frontier, that distinction actually belongs to a group of fruit flies. Launched by the United States on February 20, 1947, these tiny insects traveled aboard a captured German V-2 rocket to an altitude of approximately 67 miles. This height surpassed the 62-mile Karman line, which is the internationally recognized boundary where space officially begins. The purpose of this mission was to study the biological effects of cosmic radiation.
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpqRTIZto24
https://www.threads.com/@beliproduk.official/post/DS4zAB7Eszp