First monkeys to survive a space flight

The first monkeys to survive a space flight were Miss Able and Miss Baker, a rhesus and a tiny squirrel monkey, on 28 May 1959. They launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, on a flight lasting about 15 minutes.

US-born Miss Able was a seven-pound female rhesus monkey, while South American-born Miss Baker was a one-pound female squirrel monkey. They travelled in capsules in the nose cone of a Jupiter AM-18 rocket, reaching speeds of 10,000 mph (16,000 km/h), an altitude of 359 miles (579 km) and experiencing weightlessness for about nine minutes. Each was equipped with a life-support system, and their heartbeat, pulse, temperature and body reactions were monitored throughout the flight.

They splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico, 1,700 miles (2,730 km) from their launch site. After recovery they were taken to Washington, DC, for a press conference, at which it was reported that "the monkeys were far less excited than the humans". They later appeared on the cover of Life Magazine (15 June 1959). Sadly Miss Able died a few days after return, during an operation to remove an infected electrode implanted for monitoring. Miss Baker lived for another 25 years at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, USA, where she is buried. She would routinely receive 100 letters a day from children.

The tiny heroines had, of course, made a huge leap in the lead-up to space exploration by humankind.