Fruit flies in space
On a July 9, 1946, suborbital V-2 rocket flight, fruit flies became the first living organisms to go to space, and on February 20, 1947, fruit flies safely returned from a suborbital space flight, which paved the way for human exploration. Years before sending mammals into space, such as the 1949 flight of the rhesus monkey Albert II, the Soviet space dogs, or humans, scientists studied Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) and its reactions to both radiation and space flight to understand the possible effects of space and a zero-gravity environment on humans.