Short answers, pulled from the story.
Fruit flies were the first animals launched into space, carried by a V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on the 20th of February 1947. The rocket reached 109 km and the flies were recovered alive.
Laika launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft on the 3rd of November 1957 and became the first animal to orbit Earth. She died during the flight; engineers had not yet developed the technology to return a spacecraft from orbit.
Two Horsfield's tortoises, launched by the Soviet Union aboard Zond 5 on the 14th of September 1968, were the first living beings to travel around the Moon. They were recovered at sea on the 21st of September and had survived the journey.
Félicette was a cat launched into space by France on the 18th of October 1963 aboard the Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47. She had electrodes in her brain that transmitted neural signals during her 15-minute flight and was recovered alive. After two months of analysis she was euthanized; a bronze statue in her likeness was unveiled in Strasbourg on the 18th of December 2019.
Four Japanese rice fish aboard STS-65 in 1994 mated and produced eggs that hatched into healthy offspring while in orbit. They were the first animals known to conceive and bear young in space.
Veterok and Ugolyok spent 22 days in orbit aboard Cosmos 110, launching on the 22nd of February 1966 and landing on the 16th of March. Their record for the longest spaceflight by dogs has never been surpassed.