The Economic Times

In 1947, the military sent fruit flies 67 miles into space to test radiation risks. 11 years later, NASA was founded in 1958, with animal flights underway in America now

1947 mission was part of a larger American effort to understand whether living organisms could survive the journey into space. Beginning in the mid-1940s, military and scientific teams used captured German V-2 rockets for research after World War II.