Laska endured 60G acceleration and 45 minutes of weightlessness before perishing. Fourteen mice were lost when the Jupiter rocket they were aboard was destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral on September 16, Gordo, a squirrel monkey, was catapulted miles high in a Jupiter rocket, also on December 13, , one year after the Soviets launched Laika. Gordo's capsule was never found in the Atlantic Ocean. He died on splashdown when a flotation mechanism failed, but Navy doctors said signals on his respiration and heartbeat proved humans could withstand a similar trip.
Able, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South American squirrel monkey, followed on May 28, , aboard an Army Jupiter missile. Launched in the nose cone, the two animals were carried to a mile altitude, and both were recovered unharmed.
However, Able died June 1 on the operating table from effects of anesthesia, as doctors were about to remove an electrode from under her skin. Baker died of kidney failure in at age Four black mice were launched on June 3, , on Discoverer 3, part of the Corona program of U.
This was the only Discoverer flight with an animal payload. The mice died when the Agena upper stage fired downward, driving the vehicle into the Pacific Ocean. The first try at launch was scrubbed after the telemetry indicated no sign of activity in the capsule and the first crew of four black mice was found dead.
The mouse cages had been sprayed with krylon to cover rough edges, and the mice had found the krylon tastier than their formula and overdosed on it. The second try at launch with a backup mouse crew was halted when the humidity sensor in the capsule indicated percent humidity.
The capsule was opened up and it was discovered that the sensor was located underneath one of the mouse cages; it was unable to distinguish the difference between water and mouse urine. After the sensor was dried out, the launch proceeded. Sam, a rhesus monkey, was one of the most well known monkeys of the space program.
His name was an acronym for the U. He was launched on December 4, , housed in a cylindrical capsule within the Mercury spacecraft atop a Little Joe rocket in order to test the launch escape system LES. Approximately one minute into the flight, traveling at a speed of mph, the Mercury capsule aborted from the Little Joe launch vehicle.
After attaining an altitude of 51 miles, the spacecraft landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Sam was recovered, several hours later, with no ill effects from his journey.
He was later returned to the colony in which he trained, where he died in November and his remains were cremated. The Mercury capsule attained a velocity of mph and an altitude of 9 miles. After landing in the Atlantic Ocean She was also returned to her training colony until her death on an unknown date.
In the Soviet Union, meanwhile, testing was also taking place on more dogs. The booster exploded on launch, killing the two dogs. On August 19, , Belka "Squirrel" and Strelka "Little Arrow" were launched on Sputnik 5 or Korabl Sputnik 2, along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants. Strelka later gave birth to a litter of six puppies one of which was given to JFK as a gift for his children.
The capsule and animals burned up on re-entry. However, the upper rocket stage failed and the launch was aborted. The dogs were safely recovered after their unplanned suborbital flight. Chernushka was accompanied into space with a dummy cosmonaut, some mice, and a guinea pig.
The dog went up with simulated cosmonaut "Ivan Ivanovich" and successfully tested the spacecraft's structure and systems. On January 31, , Ham, whose name was an acronym for H olloman A ero M ed, became the first chimpanzee in space, aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on a sub-orbital flight very similar to Alan Shepard's.
The original flight plan called for an altitude of miles and speeds ranging up to mph. However, due to technical problems, the spacecraft carrying Ham reached an altitude of miles and a speed of mph and landed miles downrange rather than the anticipated miles. Ham performed well during his flight and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 60 miles from the recovery ship. He experienced a total of 6.
Riding the excitement and positive publicity, Soviet scientists launched the first animal into orbit less than a month later. On Nov. Tragically for her, it was a one-way trip: She died five to seven hours into the flight when the heat-dissipating screen and ventilation fan were not able to adequately control the temperature inside the capsule. Largely strays from the pound or off the streets in Moscow, these dogs went through a battery of tests and preparation for their ballistic missions, with at least eight taking suborbital flights.
Despite some losses, these flights continued to prove that living beings could fly to space and survive, at least some of the time. More than three years would pass before Yuri Gagarin would achieve the coveted prize of becoming the first man to orbit Earth on April 12, The year after Laika, , was a momentous year in space exploration. President Dwight D. A few months later, Project Mercury, the U.
The U. In the U. But landings and recoveries continued to prove difficult, even after successful flights, and several animals were lost. At Holloman, a colony of chimpanzees underwent intense training. Scientists wanted to know how their reflexes would respond to the flight forces and the weightlessness of space.
Once they were comfortable being strapped in and wearing space equipment, the chimps in the colony were trained to perform in-flight experiments. Ham, born in in the rainforest of what is now Cameroon, was a standout. His easy-going personality made him a favorite of handlers and trainers. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story is often lost in all of the writings about Ham: he was a baby. Humans are often considered more intelligent than chimpanzees, yet it is hard to imagine a human toddler performing as well as Ham in this challenging task.
We honor and remember Ham and all of the young chimpanzees who suffered through the tragic deaths of their mothers and the transatlantic journey to the United States to become test subjects for space flight. Although Ham had no children, Save the Chimps is proud to have provided a peaceful retirement for other survivors and descendants of the space chimp program. As Dr. He was then moved to the North Carolina Zoo. He died three years later at the age of 26—approximately half the expected lifetime for a captive chimpanzee.
Despite the fame that followed, this was no volunteer mission. Ham had to be restrained to teach him to remain still for long periods in the cramped capsule. Today, we know that some of the United States Air Force's methods to train chimpanzees included straight jackets, neck rings, and four-limb restraints.
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