The history of animal testing in space is a long one, but one of the most
important parts of it is held by monkeys. During the 1940s, scientists
began sending various types of animals into space with a goal of
determining conditions in the harsh environment of space. After the end
of initial fears that no life can survive in the weightlessness and space
radiation, American scientist embraced a long running program that sent
over 15 monkeys into orbit. Those early experiments paved the way for the
future manned mission to space, and vast expansion of scientific
knowledge that awaited us beyond the Earth.American focus with monkeys
can easily be explained with their relative ease of training, and their
physical and biological similarities to the humans. In addition to
investigating influences of space on monkey's bodies and their abilities
to preform simple trained actions, many of the flights also tested
various new materials, equipment, and other procedures that would
eventually be used in the upcoming manned space missions.First wave of
missions that launched several monkeys above the upper layers of the
Earth used V2 and later on Aerobee rockets (famously, V2 represented
redesigned models of German WW2 rockets). Six monkeys that went toward
the space in between 1949 and 1952 did not managed to survive their
missions, but scientist still managed to record vast amounts of important
observations and data. Most important flights from that time were
undoubtedly those of monkey Albert II who managed reach the altitude of
83 miles and officially enter space, and Albert VI, who managed to
survive his landing. Sadly, even he died few hours later from
overheating, while waiting his rescue party to save him from scorching
sun of New Mexico.Arrival of Jupiter class rockets ushered new age of
space exploration. Scientist were then able to send bigger cargo into
orbit, and one of the most famous examples of successful monkey space
mission was the one of Able and Miss Baker. During their May 28 1959
flight, they reached the altitude of over 300 miles, experienced over 9
minutes of weightlessness and then safely landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Success of this mission proved to the scientist that their space program
is almost mature enough to send human crew to space.Introduction of
Mercury space program brought the final phase of monkey testing. Before
American astronaut maiden flight, NASA scientists decided test several
important procedures and equipment using monkeys. Small rhesus monkeys
Sam and Miss Sam successfully tested astronaut evacuation procedure
called LES, and in January 1961, fist chimpanzee called Ham was sent into
space. Purpose of Ham's flight was to prove to scientist that astronauts
could operate their complicated equipment during times of weightlessness.
Ham preformed perfectly, and in May of the same year, American Astronaut
Alan Shepard successfully went to space (only few weeks after historic
flight of Soviet Union cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin). Few more monkeys went to
space after that - chimpanzee Enos orbited the Earth two times in late
1961, and two small monkeys were sent to space onboard the 1985 flight of
the Space Shuttle Challenger.Soviet Union early space program was more
focused on sending dogs into space. Almost 20 years after the end of
American monkey testing, first monkeys went up to space in their "Bion"
space program. Between 1983 to 1996, exactly 12 monkeys was sent to space
on a missions that lasted between five and 5 and 14 days.Last flight of
Russian monkeys in 1996 represented end of their usage in space programs.
In the same year, NASA disbanded their own monkey testing facilities and
focused their effort in the manned exploration of space.
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