The first astronauts
Since the earliest times, people have looked up at the stars, the moon and the planets. Today people use modern machines 1 at the sky. This is very different from the situation 2 years ago when people could only use their eyes. Perhaps they dreamed of 3 the universe. When did humans first go into space? The story began not very long ago, 4 the first astronauts were not people — they were animals.
Scientists wanted to make travelling to space as 5 as possible for humans. So they decided to experiment with animals and test6 in spaceflights. Insects, mice, frogs, dogs and monkeys were some of the animals 7 first went into space. Many of them 8, but they helped to make space travel safer for humans. For their great service, we 9 forget these animals.
Albert II was the first monkey to go into space in 1949. Sadly he died 10 his spaceship landed back on the Earth. 11 the result was different for Ham the Monkey. His story ended happily when he returned to the Earth 12 very good health.
Scientists wanted to know the answer to the important question: could 13 animal like Ham do the same things in space as he could do on the Earth? The answer came when Ham 14 into space in 1961. Yes, he did everything well and lived for 15 16 years.
