In 1968, two Soviet tortoises circled the Moon and returned alive, completing the journey three months before Apollo 8
In September 1968, three months before Apollo 8 carried the first humans around the Moon, two Central Asian steppe tortoises had already made the same journey and returned home alive. According to Nasa, the tortoises launched aboard the Soviet Union’s Zond 5 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, travelling alongside wine flies, worms and plants as…