Monkey See, Monkey Flew

As a bit of an epilogue to our first Podcast on space travel (“In the Beginning“), NASA did in fact launch several monkeys into the upper atmosphere – and then into near space – in order to determine the possible reactions humans might encounter during exo-earth voyages as the Space Race heated up in the late 1940’s and 50’s.

Ground Control to Major Al…

Albert – the world’s first monk-ronaut – was propelled by a NASA V2 rocket in 1948 to a height of almost 40 miles above the earth but unfortunately died of suffocation mid-flight.  After some capsule reconfiguration, Albert II blasted off in 1949 and surpassed the 83-mile mark but did not survive the return to earth because his parachute failed to deploy.  As for Alberts III, IV and V – all suffered similar adverse terminal consequences.

Up next was Albert VI – who NASA decided to rename Yorick (as a hedge against the tragic outcomes of Alberts I through V).  Yorick did travel 44 miles into space, and he did return back on earth in one piece… however,… Yorick suffered a fatal heat exhaustion demise while waiting to be released from NASA’s constricting flying metal tin can in the sweltering New Mexican desert upon landing.  0 for 6.

It was not until 1959 when two monkeys named Miss Able and Miss Baker aboard a Jupiter rocket actually reached space and lived to chatter about it.  But sadly, Miss Able did not get to take a long victory lap – she lasted only a few days after touch down when a botched surgery to remove an electrode proved fatal and she joined the pantheon of her intergalactic compatriots in monkey Valhalla.

Russia launched dogs and France fired up intergalactic cats, but it was America’s trials (and many errors) with monkeys which paved the way for humans.

And then we reached the chimpanzees…

A chimp named Ham aka “Chimp” Chimpman was “recruited” for a launch in January 1961, reaching an altitude of 157 miles and returned unharmed.   Not to be one-upped, on April 12, 1961, The Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human to ever reach space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth. Three weeks later, American astronaut Alan Shepard became the second human to travel into space, but he did not orbit the earth. Again, NASA left that first dicey trip to the chimps. And it was probably a good thing, particularly for John Glenn’s cardiological system. Why? Because a chimp named Enos in November 1961 became the first American monkey to orbit the Earth, and while he reached the landing point intact, an equipment malfunction caused him to sustain repeated electrical shocks during the flight.  

Three months later, in February 1962, NASA ironed out the electrical kinks in the system which continually zapped Enos during his mission, and John Glenn completed his historic orbit – none of which could have happened but for our intrepid squad of simian predecessors who reluctantly became our first American cosmic heroes.