The USSR sent the first animals into space.
Laika a dog was the first animal in space it was sent by the soviet union
Russia sent a dog before the US sent chimps.
Russia sent a dog called Laika into space on 3 November 1957 (which was the first ever satellite, which first flew on October 4 1957).
The first animal sent to Outer space was a dog named Laika.
In the 1940s the US sent fruit flies into space
Many dogs have been to space. The Soviets sent a total of 13 dogs into space between 1957 and 1966.
The USA sent the first mammal into space, it was a monkey.
Russia
the Soviet Union
According to www.spacetoday.org, Laika, the first animal (dog) sent into space by the Soviet Union was a stray estimated to be about 3yrs old.
Laika was a soviet space dog that become the first animal to orbit the earth , as well as the first animal to die in orbit
The Soviet Union sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space on April 12, 1961.