But they had stayed active and showed no loss of appetite. NASA records state that the animals were dissected on October 11, 1968, to see how their bodies were affected by the space travel.ĭissection showed that “the main structural changes in the tortoises were caused by a lack of food and not the space travel.” The tortoises had lost about 10 percent of their body weight. They traveled back to Moscow on October 7.īoth tortoises survived the trip but not the experiment. NASA calls it “the first successful circumlunar mission carried out by any nation.”Īfter a week-long trip, the tortoises landed on Earth by parachute in the Indian Ocean.
On September 14, 1968, the Soviet space program sent two tortoises - along with some flies and worms - into space for a trip around the moon.
These African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys Sulcata) live at a zoo in Guadalajara, Mexico, May 17, 2018.
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