January 29, 2013
4 min read
Monkeys in Space: A Brief Spaceflight History
A look at simian astronauts over the years
By Mike Wall & SPACE.com
If Iran has indeed launched a monkey to space, the nation is following a path similar to that taken by the United States in the early days of its space program.
Iran announced today (Jan. 28) that it had successfully launched a live monkey on a spaceflight and recovered the animal alive after landing. The move is a prelude to sending humans into space, which the Islamic Republic hopes to do by 2020, Iranian Space Agency officials said.
Iran and the United States don't see eye-to-eye on many issues, but both have viewed monkeys as good astronaut test subjects over the years. The U.S. was the first country ever to launch a primate, sending a rhesus monkey named Albert to a sub-space altitude of 39 miles (63 kilometers) aboard a V2 rocket in June 1948.
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Very little was known about the physiological effects of spaceflight back in those days, with some scientists postulating that astronauts' cardiovascular systems would fail in the microgravity environment, causing near-instant death. So researchers wanted to blast some relatively large animals into space to see how they fared.[Photos: Pioneering Animals in Space]
Albert died of suffocation during his flight, and a number of his simian brethren also sacrificed their lives to the cause in the ensuing years.
Another rhesus monkey named Albert II, for example, became the first primate to reach space, achieving an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) aboard another V2 in June 1949. He survived the launch but died after a parachute failure caused his capsule to slam hard into the ground.
Alberts III and IV died during their missions in late 1949, and Albert V was victimized by another parachute failure in 1951. Albert VI, also known as Yorick, survived his 1951 flight, though it topped out at an altitude of just 45 miles (72 km) — significantly below the generally accepted 62-mile (100 km) boundary demarcating outer space.
Yorick died several hours after landing, possibly from heat stress suffered as he sat inside his cramped capsule in the New Mexico sun, waiting for the recovery crew.
The United States recorded a milestone in May 1959, finally recovering two primates alive after a spaceflight. A rhesus monkey named Able and a squirrel monkey named Baker reached an altitude of 300 miles (483 km) aboard a Jupiter rocket and were retrieved unharmed. (Sadly, Able died several days later during an operation to remove an electrode from under her skin.)
As the American human spaceflight program began to build momentum, the nation started experimenting with chimpanzees, which are larger and more closely related to humans than are rhesus, squirrel or other monkeys.
The U.S. launched a chimp named Ham on a suborbital spaceflight on Jan. 31, 1961. Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles (253 km) during a 16.5-minute flight and was recovered unharmed, though a bit dehydrated. With this success in hand, Alan Shepard successfully blasted off on his suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, becoming the first American — and second human, after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin — ever to reach space.
A chimp named Enos orbited the Earth on Nov. 29, 1961, paving the way for John Glenn's historic orbital flight of Feb. 20, 1962. (Again, the U.S. was slightly late to the party: Gagarin orbited our planet on his flight of April 12, 1961.)
After it became established that humans could indeed survive the rigors of spaceflight, monkeys and apes faded into the background. The U.S. continued to launch animals for scientific experiments but increasingly concentrated on smaller creatures such as mice and insects, which are easier to care for and take up much less space (although two squirrel monkeys did ride on the space shuttle Challenger's STS-51-B mission in April-May 1985.)
The United States' space race rival, the Soviet Union, primarily used dogs in the run-up to its first human launches, thinking that canines would prove to be less fidgety in flight than monkeys.
The Soviets launched their first dogs to space in 1951. The nation famously succeeded in lofting the first animal — a dog called Laika ("Barker") — to orbit aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft in November 1957. (Laika died during the flight.)
Despite its canine focus, the Soviet Union and its successor state Russia did launch a number of rhesus monkeys to space in the 1980s and 1990s, as part of a program called Bion. France also blasted two pig-tailed macaque monkeys to suborbital space in 1967.
Iran's recent launch was not its first attempt to send a monkey into space. A previous orbital effort in 2011 failed.
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FAQs
The United States recorded a milestone in May 1959, finally recovering two primates alive after a spaceflight. A rhesus monkey named Able and a squirrel monkey named Baker reached an altitude of 300 miles (483 km) aboard a Jupiter rocket and were retrieved unharmed.
What happened to the monkeys that went to space? ›
Lapik and Multik were the last monkeys in space until Iran launched one of its own in 2013. The pair flew aboard Bion 11 from December 24, 1996, to January 7, 1997. Upon return, Multik died while under anesthesia for US biopsy sampling on January 8. Lapik nearly died while undergoing the identical procedure.
Did the US send monkeys into space? ›
In the 1940s and 1950s, the Soviet Union and US space programmes sent numerous species of animals into space, including monkeys, mice and dogs. However, these were suborbital flights, which meant the spacecraft passed into outer space before falling back to Earth without making an orbit.
How many monkeys were sent to space and survived? ›
Able, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South American squirrel monkey, followed on May 28, 1959, aboard an Army Jupiter missile. Launched in the nose cone, the two animals were carried to a 300-mile altitude, and both were recovered unharmed.
Did Laika the dog survive? ›
Laika had actually survived only about five to seven hours after liftoff before dying of overheating and panic. It was belatedly made known that Laika's pulse rate, which had been measured with electrodes, tripled during takeoff and only came down somewhat during weightlessness.
Did the first chimp in space survive? ›
He died 22 years after his historic flight into space, on January 18, 1983, at the estimated age of 26. Ham's flight is remarkable for many reasons. Ham not only survived the flight, but performed his tasks correctly, despite the rigors of space flight and the fear he must have experienced.
Was Laika's body found? ›
Electrodes transmitted Laika's vital signs back to Earth, revealing the space dog died after her fourth orbit when her capsule overheated. Five months later, after thousands of orbits, Sputnik 2 — referred to as a space coffin turned shooting star — fell back to earth, disintegrating, with Laika's remains.
Is Laika the dog still in space? ›
As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.
Has a monkey been to the Moon? ›
Answer and Explanation: No, monkeys have not gone to the Moon; only humans have. Monkeys have, however, been sent into space, starting with Albert II who was sent into space in 1949. Unfortunately, Albert did not survive the impact on the return to Earth.
What does "laika" mean in Russian? ›
Laika, written as Лайка in Russian, means "barker," originating from the Russian verb layat (лаять), "to bark." Laika was the Soviet space dog who rose from the Moscow streets to outer space, proving that anyone can achieve greatness no matter where they come from.
No dog was ever sent to the moon, but on November 3rd, 1957, a Soviet space dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth on Sputnik 2. She was never intended to be rescued, and died from overheating and asphyxia within hours of the launch.
Why was space monkey 1959 important? ›
In 1959, the U.S. needed a Cold War win and the country was eyeing spaceflight. And so a pair of mismatched monkeys found themselves bundled up and placed in a Jupiter missile. Dubbed Able and Baker, they became the first primates to survive spaceflight during a suborbital predawn flight on May 28, 1959.
What happened to Albert the monkey in space? ›
Albert I's attempt to reach space was not successful and unfortunately he died of suffocation due to the cramped capsule.
Why did Ham the chimp go to space? ›
The chosen chimp would test life support systems and demonstrate that equipment could be operated during spaceflight. Ham showed great aptitude, and was selected the day before the flight. On January 31, 1961, Ham was launched into space, strapped into a capsule inside the nosecone of a Mercury-Redstone rocket.
Who was the second monkey in space? ›
On May 28, 1959, Mses. Baker and Able were launched into space on the Jupiter AM-18 mission. When they came back to Earth, they became the first monkeys to go to space and return alive. Miss Able didn't survive the electrode removal process (the anesthesia was too much), but Miss Baker did.
What happened to Ham the space monkey? ›
HAM lived his final days with a small colony of chimpanzees there and died January 19, 1983 at 26 years as a result of chronic heart and liver disease. HAM's remains were sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. for necropsy.
Did Enos the Chimp survive? ›
On November 4, 1962, Enos died of shigellosis-related dysentery, which was resistant to then-known antibiotics. He was constantly observed for two months before his death. Pathologists reported no symptoms that could be attributed or related to his previous space flight.
Is space monkey safe? ›
Sadly it would seem that a round of Space Monkey is every bit as dangerous as - if not more so than - traditional student pastimes such as drinking games or a puff on a jazz cigarette.
