He had gone farther than any of them knew how to thank him for.

A tough little tidepool fish became one of NASA’s earliest space adaptors, learning to swim in zero gravity while its fry evolved even faster.

The first American to orbit Earth was a chimp who followed every command, even as the machine meant to reward him punished him instead.

They left Earth without names, spinning in a metal box toward the Moon, enduring the vast indifferent dark with the calm of creatures who’ve outlived empires