Copyright news18
When the world thinks about the early heroes of space exploration, it imagines courageous humans strapped inside metal capsules, braving the darkness. But the very first pioneers of the cosmos did not wear suits or helmets. They did not understand risk, nor did they volunteer; they just buzzed and made history. Back in 1947, just two years after World War II, a small payload soared skyward aboard a captured V-2 rocket launched from New Mexico. It carried the first animals to survive space travel: fruit flies. These tiny insects, small enough to sit comfortably on a fingernail, became the first creatures to travel into space and return alive.
