Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Animals in Space From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle by Colin Burgess Animals in Space. Many readers will doubtless be astonished to learn that animals were being fired aloft in U.S. and Soviet research rockets in the late 1940s. In fact most people not only believe that the Russian space dog Laika was the first canine to be launched into space, but also that the high-profile, precursory Mercury flights of chimps Ham and Enos were the only primate flights conducted by the United States. In fact, both countries had sent literally dozens of animals aloft for many years prior to these events and continued to do so for many years after. Other latter-day space nations, such as France and China, would also begin to use animals in their own space research. Animals in Space will explain why dogs, primates, mice and other rodents were chosen and tested, at a time when dedicated scientists from both space nations were determined to establish the survivability of human subjects on both ballistic and orbital space flights. It will also recount the way this happened; the secrecy involved and the methods employed, and offer an objective analysis of how the role of animals as spaceflight test subjects not only evolved, but subsequently changed over the years in response to a public outcry led by animal activists. It will explore the ways in which animal high-altitude and space flight research impacted on space flight biomedicine and technology, and how the results - both successful and disappointing - allowed human beings to then undertake that same hazardous journey with far greater understanding and confidence. This book is intended as a detailed yet highly readable and balanced account of the history of animal space flights, and the resultant application of hard-won research to space technology and astrobiology. It will undoubtedly become the ultimate authority on animal space flights. Colin Burgess is a recognised historian in the field of space literature and has carried out extensive research on the history of animal space flights over many years. Chris Dubbs also carried out comprehensive research on Soviet animal flights. He was selected by the New Mexico Museum of Space History to serve as Guest Curator for their upcoming exhibit on the Soviet space dogs. From the reviews: "Animals in Space, a relentlessly factual account of animal endeavours in near Earth orbit. … The programme and its relationship to animal rights is surely fertile material for any future popular science work on the subject. … the history of animal space flight is long and fascinating. It deserves its place alongside the human stories of Vostok 1, Apollo 11 and Challenger." (New Scientist, April, 2007) Colin Burgess (author) Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second man and the first American to travel into space, and in 1971, he walked on the Moon. Ham , also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp , was a chimpanzee and the first non-human hominid launched into space. On January 31, 1961, Ham flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury. Ham's name is an acronym for the laboratory that prepared him for his historic mission—the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, southwest of Alamogordo. His name was also in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton "Ham" Blackshear. Charles Moss Duke Jr. is an American former astronaut, U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot. As lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days. Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After service as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956, and was selected as an astronaut in 1959. Joseph Peter Kerwin , , is an American physician and former NASA astronaut, who served as Science Pilot for the Skylab 2 mission from May 25–June 22, 1973. He was the first physician to be selected for astronaut training. Kerwin is the last surviving crew member of Skylab 2. Colonel Alfred Merrill Worden USAF was an American test pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. One of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, he orbited it 74 times in the command module (CM) Endeavour . The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1 . Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959. These seven original American astronauts were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. The Mercury Seven created a new profession in the United States, and established the image of the American astronaut for decades to come. Project Gemini was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and sixteen individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966. NASA Astronaut Group 3 was a group of fourteen astronauts selected by NASA. Their selection was announced in October 1963. Four died in training accidents before they could fly in space. All of the surviving ten flew in the Apollo program; five also flew Gemini missions. Aldrin, Bean, Cernan and Scott walked on the Moon. NASA Astronaut Group 4 was a group of six astronauts selected by NASA in June 1965. While the astronauts of the first two groups were required to have an undergraduate degree or the professional equivalent in engineering or the sciences, they were chosen for their experience as test pilots. Test pilot experience was waived as a requirement for the third group, and military jet fighter aircraft experience could be substituted. Group 4 was the first chosen on the basis of research and academic experience, with NASA providing pilot training as necessary. Initial screening of applicants was conducted by the National Academy of Sciences. NASA Astronaut Group 5 was a group of nineteen astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. Of the six Lunar Module Pilots that walked on the Moon, three came from Group 5. The group as a whole is roughly split between the half who flew to the Moon, and the half who flew Skylab and Space Shuttle, providing the core of Shuttle commanders early in that program. This group is also distinctive in being the only time when NASA hired a person into the astronaut corps who had already earned astronaut wings, X-15 pilot Joe Engle. John Young labeled the group the Original Nineteen in parody of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert H. Goddard. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first man and the first woman into orbit. The United States caught up with, and then passed, their Soviet rivals during the mid-1960s, landing the first man on the Moon in 1969. In the same period, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China were concurrently developing more limited launch capabilities. collectSPACE is an online publication and community for space history enthusiasts featuring articles and photos about space artifacts and memorabilia, information on past, current, and upcoming space events, space history collecting resources, and links to other space-related websites. It also provides an array of message boards where registered members can discuss various aspects of space history and the space collecting hobby; buy, sell, or trade items; or pose "what if?" historical questions. Users often abbreviate the website's name as "cS," and members often refer to each other as "cSers." The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration: NASA Astronaut Group 6 was a group of eleven astronauts announced by NASA on August 11, 1967, the second group of scientist-astronauts. Although Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton planned to hire 20 to 30 new scientist-astronauts, he did not expect any to fly because of a surplus of astronauts amid the looming dearth of post-Apollo program funding, exemplified by the concomitant devolution of the Apollo Applications Program into the Skylab Program. NASA found that only 11 of the 923 applicants were qualified, and hired all. In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility is a 2007 non-fiction book by space historians Francis French and Colin Burgess. Drawing on a number of original personal interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts and those who worked closely with them, the book chronicles the American and Soviet programs from 1965 onwards, through the Gemini, Soyuz and early Apollo flights, up to the first landing on the Moon by Apollo 11. Francis French is a book and magazine author from Manchester, England, specialising in space flight history. He is a former director of events for Sally Ride Science, and a director at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. NASA Astronaut Group 7 was a group of seven astronauts accepted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on August 14, 1969. It was the last group to be selected during the Project Apollo era, and the first since the Mercury Seven in which all members were active-duty military personnel, and all made flights into space. NASA Astronaut Group 8 was a group of 35 astronauts announced on January 16, 1978. It was the first NASA selection since Group 6 in 1967, and was the largest group to that date. The class was the first to include female and minority astronauts; of the 35 selected, six were women, one of them being Jewish American, three were African American, and one was Asian American. Due to the long delay between the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972 and the first flight of the Space Shuttle in 1981, few astronauts from the older groups remained, and they were outnumbered by the newcomers, who became known as the Thirty-Five New Guys (TFNG). Since then, a new group of candidates has been selected roughly every two years. Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era 1961–1965 is a 2007 non-fiction book by space historians Francis French and Colin Burgess. Drawing on a number of original personal interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts and those who worked closely with them, the book chronicles the American and Russian programs from 1961 onwards, from the first human spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin through the Mercury, Vostok and Voskhod flights, up to the first spacewalk by Alexei Leonov. They Rode the Rockets. Before achieving lasting fame as America’s first man in space in May 1961, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard was asked why he had been selected to make the historic flight. He grinned and responded, “I guess they just ran out of monkeys!” Shepard was not simply being self-deprecating. In the late 1940s, when the US and the Soviet Union began military ballistic test flights using captured German V-2 technology, the high-altitude flights also carried animals in order to determine whether humans could eventually survive a rocket launch and the expected disorientation caused by weightlessness. American stratospheric test flights carried a series of monkeys as “simulated pilots.” The first six of these animals perished, primarily due to parachute failure. It was four years into Project Blossom before two macaque monkeys named Patricia and Michael became the first animals to survive a US rocket flight, reaching an altitude of thirty-nine miles in May 1952. Soviet scientists, meanwhile, preferred small dogs as their test subjects and set about gathering hardy candidates from the streets of Moscow. These dogs were tough, inured to hunger and cold, and therefore considered suitable for the rigors of training and space flight. The first series of high-altitude flights carried a total of eight dogs aboard modified V-1 rockets in 1951; only half survived the ordeal. In October 1957, the Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. The following month, a tiny terrier named Laika (“barker”) was hurled into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. The Soviets, however, had not developed a satellite recovery system, and the first animal cosmonaut was predestined to perish in space. As it happened, Laika died from heat prostration within hours of launch, when a loss of insulation during staging created unsustainably high temperatures within the satellite. Three years later, in August 1960, a pair of Soviet dogs named Belka and Strelka (accompanied by thirty-four mice and two rats) achieved global fame as the first animals successfully recovered from orbit. Other canine orbital flights successfully took place before a small dog called Zvezdochka flew in March 1961. This final test of the spacecraft’s systems in orbit paved the way for Yuri Gagarin to achieve humankind’s first space flight just two weeks later. After a six-year hiatus, America would resume bioflight operations on Friday, 13 December 1958, when a Navy-trained squirrel monkey named Gordo was launched aboard a Jupiter ballistic missile. Gordo survived the nine minutes of weightlessness, but perished when her spacecraft sank after splashdown in the South Atlantic. Traditionally, no Navy ship is launched on Friday the 13th, and it seems poor Gordo fell afoul of that particular superstition. Redemption would come on the next Jupiter launch, which carried a female rhesus monkey named Able and a female squirrel monkey named Baker 360 miles into space on 28 May 1959. Following their successful recovery at sea, a Navy diver opened the small container holding the squirrel monkey and was rewarded with a good, solid bite on the arm. Miss Baker, as she came to be known, lived to become a true celebrity of the space age, appearing in countless publications and gracing the cover of Life magazine. Able fared less well: she died four days after splashdown under anesthetic as doctors removed sensors implanted beneath her skin. Despite the success of the Jupiter mission, NASA wanted more data prior to sending the first American into space, and decided to test the Mercury spacecraft and its Redstone rocket on a precursory suborbital flight with a chimpanzee taking the place of an astronaut. On 31 January 1961, Ham soared into spaceflight history with a perfect launch from Cape Canaveral, clearing the way for Alan Shepard to follow. A similar scenario preceded the orbital flight of astronaut John Glenn, when a feisty chimp named Enos completed a two-orbit mission. It was then judged safe to launch Glenn on his own historic mission. As late as 1985, two squirrel monkeys were launched aboard space shuttle Challenger to test the effects of prolonged space flight, research that had originally begun in the 1960s when the Soviets sent two dogs through the Van Allen radiation belt. Up until 1996, the two countries, now partners in space, carried out a series of joint biosatellite flights. All the monkeys involved survived, but animal activist groups successfully petitioned for the termination of any future flights involving primates. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle by Colin Burgess. by Kate S. Zalzal Tuesday, December 27, 2016. Ham, the first hominid in space, was named after Holloman Aeromedical Research Laboratory at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M., where he was trained. Credit: NASA. Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham, outfitted in a diaper, waterproof pants and a space suit, was sealed into a capsule and loaded onto a Mercury-Redstone 2 spacecraft in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Six hours later, Ham the Chimp, named after Holloman Aeromedical Research Laboratory at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M., where he was trained, became the first hominid to travel into space. Ham was blasted 240 kilometers above Earth, experiencing speeds up to 9,300 kilometers per hour as well as six and a half minutes of weightlessness. During the crushing forces of take-off and re-entry, sensors monitored Ham’s breathing, heart rate and body temperature. In-flight photographs show that Ham was visibly stressed for parts of his flight, but he was still able to perform a series of experiments that he had been trained to carry out — evidence that humans too could make decisions and execute tasks during space travel. When, after the 16-minute flight, the capsule landed in the Atlantic Ocean with the chimp safe and sound, a manned mission beyond our world was within reach. Ham’s flight served as the final proof that the American spacecraft system was ready for suborbital flight. A little more than three months later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American human launched into space and, thanks in large part to the missions of Ham and his predecessors, Shepard returned home safely. Ham, a week before the launch, shown with the equipment and space suit for his flight. Credit: NASA. The First Animals in Space. Ham was no doubt a pioneer. But his successful mission was the crowning achievement of several decades of animal testing — trials that included both great successes and disheartening failures. “In our pursuit of space we have asked animals to involuntarily lead the way and demonstrate safety, risks and hazards that should never be first identified by a human space traveler,” wrote Joseph T. Bielitzki, a former NASA chief veterinary officer, in the foreword of the 2007 book “Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle” by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs. During the 1940s and ‘50s, animals were involved in rocket tests at White Sands Missile Range and g-force research at Holloman Air Force Base. The earliest set of primate flights, the Albert Series, consisted of monkeys flying in nose cones of captured German V-2 rockets. The first of these flights, on June 11, 1948, carried a rhesus monkey named Albert, who was anesthetized and sedated before being launched 360 kilometers above Earth’s surface. Equipment complications delayed the launch and, although the spacecraft also crash-landed after the parachutes failed, it’s thought that Albert perished before take-off due to extreme heat in his capsule. It would be another year before the scientists tried again. For the second launch, a rhesus monkey named Albert II and another monkey occupied a more spacious capsule that could better protect them against temperature fluctuations. On June 14, 1949, three and a half minutes after liftoff, the pair reached an altitude of 136 kilometers. But disaster struck again when another parachute malfunction caused the nose cone to crash to the ground, killing the monkeys. The recorders in the capsule remained intact however, and respiration and echocardiogram data indicated that the monkeys were in relatively good condition until the moment of impact. Additional flights carrying both monkeys and mice followed, but explosions or parachute failures prevented the safe return of the animals each time. Although scientists and engineers had major safety hurdles to overcome with the launch and landing process, heart and respiratory data gathered during the flights proved that the animals could survive the trip into space and back. At Holloman Air Force Base, chimpanzees underwent intense training and medical analysis to see how they would respond to flight and weightlessness. Once they were comfortable being strapped in and wearing equipment, the chimps were trained to perform in-flight experiments. Credit: NASA. In the early 1950s, rocket technology and animal capsule design improved. The use of Aerobee sounding rockets, capable of hauling a heavier payload, allowed scientists to expand the scope of suborbital biological research. Confident that a human could survive the trip, researchers were interested in the effects of cosmic radiation and in limiting passenger disorientation resulting from weightlessness. But the monkeys aboard the first two Aerobee flights again died, the first in a crash-landing and the second from dehydration. With a new parachute system installed, the third Aerobee biological flight launched on May 21, 1952, and carried two macaques, Patricia and Michael, along with two mice, Mildred and Albert, nearly 60 kilometers into the atmosphere. As on previous flights, the macaques were anesthetized. But on this flight, they were seated in different orientations for physiological comparisons of how they handled the acceleration. The mice were treated differently as well: One mouse was given a perch to cling to, the other had nothing to grasp within its smooth-walled drum. The mouse with the perch stayed oriented and quiet, while the perch-less mouse hopped disconcertedly around during the brief period of weightlessness. All four animals landed safely and in good health. The results of the flight would aid in astronaut seating and cabin design. According to Captain David G. Simons, a mission coordinator at Holloman, the series of biological flights proved that weightlessness did not materially harm circulation. “This does not mean that the circulation might not be involved secondarily, due to emotional and automatic reactions to weightlessness. Such secondary reactions are essentially the same whether caused by weightlessness, a rough sea, or an obnoxious mother-in-law,” he wrote in a 1955 report. In the years between World War II and the onset of Cold War tensions, the emphasis on the military aspect of space exploration diminished, and animal flights were discontinued in the U.S. from 1952 to 1957. During this time, dozens of people came forward, volunteering to be the next subject blasted into space. By pressing levers in response to a sequence of lights, the chimps could receive treats and water. When performed incorrectly, they received mild electrical shocks on the bottoms of their feet. Credit: NASA. Soviet Space Dogs. On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stunned the world with its maiden Sputnik mission, putting the first artificial satellite into orbit. Riding the excitement and positive publicity, Soviet scientists launched the first animal into orbit less than a month later. On Nov. 3, 1957, a dog named Laika achieved immortality as the first animal ever to orbit Earth when her Sputnik 2 R-7 rocket lifted off from Baikonur in Soviet Kazakhstan. 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. Sputnik 2 orbited Earth more than 2,500 times before it burned up upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere on April 4, 1958. Soviet space dogs were being trained for several years prior to Laika’s fateful voyage. 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, 1961. During the intervening time between Laika’s and Gagarin’s missions, the Soviets launched 16 more orbital and suborbital flights carrying dogs, efforts that gathered information for the development of the Vostok rocket that carried Gagarin into space. The original capsule is now on display at the California Space Center, on loan from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Credit: Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Momentum Builds. The year after Laika, 1958, was a momentous year in space exploration. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Oct. 1, 1958. A few months later, Project Mercury, the U.S.’s “man-in-space program” was announced. The U.S. also launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, and the Soviet Union lobbed up Sputnik 3, a massive orbiting laboratory. In the U.S., biological space missions resumed. 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. By pressing levers in response to a sequence of lights, the chimps could receive treats and water. When performed incorrectly, they received mild electrical shocks on the bottoms of their feet. The launch of the Mercury-Redstone 2 spacecraft that carried Ham into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 31, 1961. Credit: NASA. The Astrochimp Takes Flight. Ham, born in 1957 in the rainforest of what is now Cameroon, was a standout. His easy-going personality made him a favorite of handlers and trainers. On Jan. 2, 1961, Ham and five other candidate chimpanzees traveled to Cape Canaveral, Fla., where they were divided into two colonies as a precaution against disease and illness — much like human astronauts are today. Even the handlers of each colony were not allowed to mingle. According to Edward Dittmer, an aeromedical technician and chimp trainer at Holloman, they didn’t decide which chimp would go until the day before the launch. Based on his physical well-being and his lever-reflex work, “Ham easily stood out as the best of the bunch,” he later recalled in an interview. caption align=right] After a 16-minute flight, including six and a half minutes of weightlessness, Ham splashed down in the Atlantic and was retrieved by the U.S.S. Donner, whose captain welcomed him aboard. Credit: NASA. As the rocket’s nose cone plunged into the sea, eight recovery ships waited. It would take an hour before Ham’s capsule, damaged in the landing and floating precariously, was picked up by a helicopter crew. Ham was agitated and squealing when he was finally unstrapped from his couch, but aside from being slightly dehydrated and suffering a bruised nose from the rough landing, he was in excellent physical shape. After Ham died in 1983, at the age of 26, some of his remains were buried in front of the International Space Hall of Fame at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, N.M. Credit: NASA. Celebrity Chimp. Back at Cape Canaveral, Ham was an unwilling celebrity. The throngs of reporters and photographers' flashbulbs scared him and he refused to pose next to a Mercury training capsule. Ham later trained for a second mission, but another chimp was ultimately chosen for the flight. In 1963, Ham was transferred to the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., where he remained a popular attraction. In 1980, Ham was transferred to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro on long-term loan. He died less than three years later at the relatively young age of 26. Preliminary calls to stuff and display Ham’s body were dismissed after public outcry. His skeleton was preserved and is still held at the U.S. National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Md., and some of his remains were laid to rest in front of the International Space Hall of Fame at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, N.M. Since Ham’s historic flight, animals have continued to have an important role in space exploration. By studying how plants and animals live, grow, reproduce and thrive in space, scientists have gathered volumes of information and gained new understanding that is critical to the pursuit of our next goal — a manned journey to Mars. Much like Ham, animals continue to lead us to the next frontier. © 2008-2021. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the expressed written permission of the American Geosciences Institute is expressly prohibited. Click here for all copyright requests. Review: Animals in Space: From research rockets to the space shuttle by Colin Burgess. EVERYBODY of a certain age remembers Laika. She was, after all, the most famous dog in the world. She hit the world’s headlines in June 1957 when the Soviet Union launched her into space aboard Sputnik 2. Her rapid rise to fame was followed by an equally rapid demise a few hours after launch, when her spacecraft malfunctioned. Contrary to popular belief, Laika was not the first animal in space. Indeed, she makes her bow only on page 143 of Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs’s chronological account of the history of animal space flight. So the obvious question is which … Subscribe for unlimited digital access. Subscribe now for unlimited access. App + Web. 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