SPACE TRAVEL

              Although evidence is scanty, it appears that four monkeys were the first animals to enter the earth's stratosphere via a V-2 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico, in 1951. The next year Aerobee rockets with monkeys and mice on board were frequently launched to test the effects of weightlessness. But usually the USSR is credited with having started the age of space travel by launching the dog Laika into orbit on board Sputnik 2, on November 3 ,1957.