Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Era espacial" in Portuguese language version.
In the earlier days of space exploration, nobody knew if people could survive a trip away from Earth, so using animals was the best way to find out. In 1948, a rhesus macaque monkey named Albert flew inside a V2 rocket. In 1957, Russians sent a dog named Laika into orbit. Both of these flights showed that humans could survive weightlessness and the effects of high gravitational forces.
