Mastodawn

"We wish to honor the first earthling into space," said the aliens, "by inviting them to join us on our journey across the cosmos."

The earth representative frowned. "You must mean Yuri Gagarin? Unfortunately, he is long dead."

"A minor detail, given our technology," the aliens replied, "and no, we do not refer to the human."

The air grew bright and hot. Colors swirled. A dog appeared.

Said the aliens, "Come with us, Laika. Join us on our journey."

The dog barked happily.

That's, of course, assuming that the Chinese didn't strap some guy to like 500 hot air balloons in the 4th century just to see how high someone could go and the record - much like the guy - did not survive.

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Anders Norén Dec 26

@thevhswizard
There is a story of a man in China who strapped a lot of fireworks to a chair, sat himself down and ordered his servants to light the fuses. Exactly what happened is not known but he was never again seen on Earth.
@vanellopemint