Animal pioneers in space: a retrospective

Nice link from Newsweek with a pictorial review of some of the animals that went into space ahead of humans, from a Russian rabbit nicknamed "Brave One" to the famous chimpanzee Ham. These were, of course, unwilling astronauts, and such experimentation nowadays is hotly debated. But they were important in the days when no one could be sure humans could live in space, and there was no practical substitute for the animal approach.