Watch VoirFilms. Fruit Flies, frogs and dogs are only a few of the many animals man has sent into space. The short documentary The Conquest of Space tells the story about the chimpanzee Ham that was sent to space some months before Gagarin became the first man in space. Based on archival footage from NASA and National Archives, The Conquest of Space is tragicomic look at the space program and the animals that went into space before humankind.