Among the many incredible space missions that have been conducted over the past decades, it is surprising to see that humans weren’t the only ones in the spotlight.

Yes, a number of animals have made space history by being a part of several of these missions. Sam the rhesus monkey, Laika the dog, and Félicette the cat were some of the first of their kind to travel to infinity and beyond.

A comedian and Twitter personality by the name of Sir Michael, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment, recently sent NASA a letter regarding animals in space. Except it was with a bit of a twist—he proposed that NASA should bring back the sending of animals into space as a means of punishing the misbehaving ones.

And NASA responded.

Sir Michael sent a letter to NASA asking why they stopped sending misbehaving animals to space

Image credits: Michael1979

So, Michael sent a formal physical letter to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which read:

“Dear sir/madam

My name is Michael and I have been reading on Facebook about early NASA missions in which animals were sent into space as punishment for misbehaviour. How come you stopped doing that? Would you ever consider bringing it back? In my opinion, it would teach misbehaving animals a lesson about the importance of treating people with respect. If you decide to bring it back, I have made a list of the first three animals who I believe would be perfect candidates”

Michael continued with the three candidates and reasons as to why they should be sent to space for their crimes:

“1. The stingray who murdered Steve Irwin (it needs to learn that what it did was wrong)
2. The seagull who stole my cousin’s ice-cream cone in 2016 (would be hard to identify the exact culprit but we could just choose one seagull at random to discourage the others)
3. Wasps”

He concluded with the following:

“I have a lot of other ideas about space too so if you want to discuss them, let me know. I am free most afternoons and evenings. And some mornings.

Yours faithfully,
Michael”

To everyone’s surprise, he actually got a response from NASA, which he shared on Twitter

Image credits: Michael1979

To everyone’s surprise, NASA actually responded to his inquiries and suggestions. They clarified that the missions were, in fact, not conducted to punish misbehaving animals. It was rather done to study the effects of microgravity as part of biomedical research, as follows:

“Dear Michael,

The purpose of sending animals to space was as a means of conducting biomedical research in order to study the effects of microgravity. It was never used as a punishment for misbehavior.

Should you wish to learn more about the history of any of our early programs, please visit the history section of our website.”

Of course, Michael shared NASA’s response on his Twitter account, where it went viral. Some of his followers also jumped in to suggest more animals to be added to the list in hopes of NASA taking the suggestion more seriously.

Michael shared his letter and NASA’s response on his Twitter account, where it went viral

Image credits: Michael1979

Michael told Bored Panda that he prefers to let his posts speak for themselves, but he did want to take the opportunity to add a comment on the NASA letter in full Sir Michael fashion:

“I am very suspicious of NASA. I’ve always had a real problem with how they treat Noel Armstring as a hero, even though he returned home from the moon immediately instead of building a new civilisation up there like he was supposed to. I consider this cowardice. And now they’re denying that they used to send animals into space as punishment for bad behaviour even though I am pretty sure it’s true. We need to disband NASA immediately and replace it with a truthful space agency that does NOT reward cowardice.”

This was Michael’s way of taking a jab at the heaps of fake news and misinformation running wild on Facebook, as well as at all of people who are knee-deep in conspiracy theories concerning space travel.

If Michael sounds familiar to you, he’s the guy behind all of the random Hi, I am Michael posters, including For Hire: Ghost Hunter, For Hire: Karate Lawyer, and Wanted: Rematch, among many others.

Of course, people began suggesting adding other animals to the list…

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What animals would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below!

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