How many humans and animals have died while on space missions?

[AndreaJames]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/17/how-many-humans-and-animals-ha.html

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[bobtato]

Pro tip: when doing fatal experiments on monkeys, don’t dress the monkey in a heart-rendingly adorable little monkey space suit. It only spotlights your monstrousness.

[some_guy]

Well . . . when you consider that all the astronauts who returned to Earth “alive” were actually alien replicants, then the mortality rate is 100%.

[Bernel]

Not the most lethal, but certainly (unintentionally) cruel was the fate of Enos, the second chimp in space. He had been trained to pull the correct lever to avoid an electric shock in order to see how well he could perform in space. Unfortunately the device broke, so no matter what he did he would get a shock:

The Horrible Thing That Happened to Enos the Chimp When He Orbited Earth 50...

[Mister44]

I have a neat poster of Laika. God speed, pup!

[Brainspore]

Some aren’t dead, just AWOL.

[Mister44]

I haven’t gotten to watch this yet, but anyone else remember the story that supposedly two Italian amateur radio operators picked up what appeared to be a Soviet capsule and transmissions where it somehow was shot out into space, never to return again?

[phuzz]

I’ll have to dig out the quote, but the story went something like this:
The early Soviet space flights were one-way, they didn’t have a return method, so one of the soviet scientists on the day before the launch of a dog (I can’t remember if this was Laika or another animal) decided that the dog deserved at least some happiness, and so took it home for the evening to play with his children.

[MBrody]

As a kid (and even today) my heart broke for Laika. When I read the details of her trip, I just imagined the discomfort and fear she must have experienced. Poor girl.

[knoxblox]

[popobawa4u]

OTOH how many monkeys have died on Earth? How many humans? Nearly all of them.

[werdnagreb]

How come so many parachute malfunctions?

[anon61221983]

She was a good doggo, Brant. A million out of 10!

[LutherBlisset]

Currently, if I wouldn’t have other obligations, I would take the job.

I’m free from October onwards. If someone would take care of my family.

[FGD135]

Urban myth. Plenty of stories like that all over western Europe at the time (early 1960ies). Sometimes pranks, sometimes anti-soviet propaganda, sometimes crazy people hearing voices, sometimes just stupid assholes trying to get their 15 minutes of fame.