Tortoises were actually the first living creatures to circle the Moon – beating humans by a few months. The spacecraft Zond 5, launched by the Soviets in Sept 1968 and including 2 tortoises, insects and plants – beating Apollo 8’s manned moon orbit in Dec 1968 by 3 months

Thanks to http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/10-animal-space-travellers.html for the pic!

This was not the first animal in space. The first chimp in space was Albert II , who flew in June 1949, but sadly died on impact coming home.

The first Dog in space in Nov 1957, the famous Russian stray Laika, died within hours of liftoff of heat stress – a fact only released by Moscow in 2002.

The first Cat in space was the French Felicette (Oct 1963) who is also the only cat to have been sent into space to survive.  In a truly cat-inspired twist, she was NOT the cat selected to go to space. The selected cat, Felix, “disappeared on launch day (typical!) and Felicette was selected on short notice to replace her.

…and not to be outdone, Frogs left Earth in 1970, Guppy type fish in 1973, and Bees in 1984! Does this mean the pet industry is moving to the Moon?