Space Dog

Laika, a stray found wandering the streets of Moscow was chosen by Soviet scientist to be the first dog to orbit the Earth. Scientist began this mission in order to discover if humans would then be able to survive the conditions of outer space.
Laika was put through extensive training and was launched into outer space on 3rd November, 1957 in the space craft Sputnik 2. Laika was chosen for a number of reasons, the main one being they believed a stray had already learnt to survive through extremely cold weather and hunger. Unfortunately, at this time, they had not yet developed the technology to de orbit so there was no real expectation on Laika's survival. At first information was given that Laika died only a few hours after take off but it wasn't until 2002 that the true cause of her death was released. The Soviet government claimed prior to her oxygen running out on day 6 that she Laika was euthanized.
Her trip into outer space proved that a living creature could survive being launched into orbit and paved the way for human spaceflight. In 2008, Russian officials erected a monument for Laika.