Contents

Authors' preface ...... xvii Acknowledgements...... xxiii Foreword...... xxv List of ®gures ...... xxxi List of abbreviations and acronyms ...... xxxvii Prologue ...... xliii

1 Taming the rockets:From wrath to research ...... 1 The man behind the vision ...... 1 Dreams of tomorrow ...... 2 Rocket man ...... 2 A minimum rocket ...... 3 The work begins ...... 4 Creating the rockets ...... 4 Higher and heavier ...... 5 Von Braun and PeenemuÈ nde...... 5 Developing the A-5 ...... 6 Birth of the ``terror weapon''...... 6 Severe setbacks and relocation ...... 7 From PeenemuÈ nde to prison ...... 9 Learning the secrets...... 9 A rocket named Waterfall...... 10 The Resistance and the rocket ...... 10 The devastation begins ...... 11 vi Contents

Operation Paperclip...... 12 A brutal bombardment...... 13 Means of escape ...... 13 Death in a Berlin bunker ...... 15 Beating the Russians to the spoils of war...... 15 A covert operation ...... 16 Operation Back®re...... 17 V-2 rockets launched by the Allies ...... 18 An agreement with the Allies...... 18 Working for the Americans...... 19 A close-won race...... 19 Sent to the steppes ...... 19 An engineer named Korolev ...... 20 Russia and the V-2 ...... 22 References ...... 22

2 Holloman and the Albert Hall of Fame ...... 25 An inauspicious start ...... 25 Punching a hole in the sand ...... 27 The coming of the missiles...... 27 America takes over ...... 27 Thunder across the desert ...... 27 Holloman is born ...... 28 A place known as White Sands ...... 29 A prime testing facility ...... 29 Putting the pieces together ...... 30 A smaller sounding rocket...... 30 A rocket for science, not war ...... 30 Expanding the scope ...... 30 Jumping on the bandwagon...... 31 Project Blossom ...... 31 Animals to ride the rockets...... 32 Unwilling but essential test subjects...... 32 The programme's guiding spirit ...... 33 A unique proposal...... 34 Exploring the possibilities ...... 35 An irresistible challenge ...... 36 The men, the mission and the monkeys ...... 37 Right place, right time ...... 37 A wonderful opportunity ...... 37 Project Albert ...... 38 Finding a way ...... 38 Contents vii

A suitable ¯ight subject ...... 39 Training ± with a note of caution...... 40 The Albert capsule ...... 40 Too much monkey business...... 41 The Albert ¯ights begin ...... 41 Preparing Albert for ¯ight...... 42 Straps, supports and steel springs ...... 42 An end before a beginning ...... 45 ``Disturbed about the whole thing'' ...... 45 Identifying the problems ...... 46 Trying to ®nd some answers ...... 46 Another monkey called Albert ...... 46 Henry and Simons try again ...... 47 If at ®rst ...... 47 Simons departs, and solutions are sought ...... 48 The frustration of failure ...... 50 The ®nal animal ¯ight ...... 50 ``The V-2 clobbered in'' ...... 50 Aerobee ¯ies ...... 51 Overcoming the dif®culties ...... 51 A successor vehicle ...... 52 Partial success...... 52 Breakthroughs at last ...... 54 Patricia and Michael ...... 55 A great milestone achieved ...... 55 Analysing the results ...... 55 The sad saga of an ill-tempered monkey ...... 58 References ...... 58

3 Pioneers of destiny:The suborbital dog ¯ights ...... 61 Have you ever seen a rocket being launched? ...... 61 A programme in its infancy...... 62 Preparing for biological ¯ights ...... 62 Which animals would ¯y on rockets? ...... 63 Selecting the ®rst animal cosmonauts...... 63 Training dogs to ¯y in rockets ...... 64 ``Return with victory'': the ®rst dog ¯ight ...... 66 Tsygan and Dezik lead the way ...... 66 Launch time draws near ...... 67 Shaken but not stirred ...... 68 The life of a space dog ...... 68 Monitoring the health of the dogs ...... 69 viii Contents

The second series of dog ¯ights ...... 70 Spacesuits and life-support systems ...... 70 One small step at a time...... 73 Things change in 1956 ...... 74 Devising the best recovery system ...... 74 The West, and the worst kept secret ...... 75 Oleg Gazenko becomes involved...... 76 A new and more powerful rocket ...... 77 The ®rst R-2A dogs...... 78 Creating a biological, orbital satellite...... 81 A programme ends, another begins ...... 82 References ...... 84

4 High-altitude research...... 85 A curious phenomenon ...... 85 First animal passengers...... 86 On ®re, but safe ...... 86 The hazards of high-altitude ¯ight ...... 87 A fatal error ...... 88 Research balloons and rockets ...... 89 Conducting experiments with cosmic radiation ...... 89 The return of David Simons ...... 91 Problems continue ...... 92 Monkeys on instalment plans...... 93 Summarising the ¯ights...... 94 Project Man High is born ...... 96 A man and a monkey? ...... 98 German rockets for science ...... 98 Kumulus and Cirrus rockets take to the skies ...... 99 Gerhard Zucker and his problem rockets ...... 100 ``The Fastest Man Alive'' ...... 101 Understanding forces that can kill ...... 101 On the path to medical research...... 102 John Paul Stapp's ``Gee-Whizz'' machine ...... 103 The sad saga of the Holloman hogs ...... 103 Fast rides and fractures ...... 106 A sled called Sonic Wind ...... 106 The chimps and Project Whoosh ...... 107 Animals, humans and g-forces ...... 108 Faster than a speeding bullet...... 109 First to volunteer ...... 109 Faster and still faster ...... 111 Forty times the pull of gravity ...... 112 Days of the Daisy Track ...... 113 Contents ix

Animal research continues...... 114 The rocket sled bears ...... 115 An application to automobile safety ...... 115 Stapp's work continues at Holloman ...... 116 Chimpanzees begin training for space ¯ight ...... 117 References ...... 118

5 Able and Baker lead the way ...... 121 NASA and the ARPA ...... 121 Project Mouse-In-Able ...... 121 A very small unit with limited space ...... 122 A victim of the space age ...... 125 Training the satellite mice ...... 125 Project ``Down to Earth'' ...... 126 The Army looks to space ...... 126 Gordo, a.k.a. Old Reliable ...... 127 Creating a Bio¯ight capsule...... 127 Gordo blazes a trail ...... 127 Ready for lift-off...... 128 Gordo takes ¯ight ...... 129 Able and Baker ...... 130 The U.S. Navy joins in ...... 130 A monkey is chosen...... 131 Miss Baker...... 133 A ride aboard a Jupiter ...... 134 Preparations continue ...... 134 Set for launch...... 136 ``Are the monkeys safe?'' ...... 136 Flight results come in...... 138 Losing Able ...... 138 Miss Baker makes friends ...... 139 Moving on...... 139 A much-loved monkey ...... 141 References ...... 141

6 The most famous dog in history ...... 143 A ``simple'' satellite ...... 143 Getting the R-7 to ¯y ...... 144 Space dogs move centre stage ...... 145 One very busy month...... 147 Cutting corners on Sputnik 2...... 147 x Contents

Selecting the dog to make history...... 150 Preparing dogs for space travel ...... 151 Which dog would ¯y? ...... 153 Flight preparations ...... 155 A sense of excitement...... 156 Pre-launch ...... 157 Laika makes history ...... 160 Sputnik 2 achieves orbit ...... 160 Critical problems arise ...... 161 The world takes note of the accomplishment ...... 162 Prayers and protests for an unnamed dog ...... 162 Hiding the facts ...... 163 Laika's legacy ...... 164 References ...... 165

7 Prelude to manned space ¯ight ...... 169 SAM, or the School of Aviation Medicine ...... 169 Devising an escape rocket ...... 170 An animal space programme takes shape ...... 170 A monkey gets a name...... 171 Sam rides a Little Joe ...... 172 Locating the capsule ...... 172 Tracking Sam ...... 172 An exemplary job ...... 175 The second ¯ight ...... 176 From Sam to Miss Sam ...... 177 One fast, hot and crushing ride ...... 177 Of mice and men ...... 179 A meticulous sham ...... 179 Background history of Project Corona...... 181 Setting things in place ...... 181 First ¯ight of Discoverer...... 182 A near-polar orbit and a predicament ...... 183 The mice that soared ...... 184 The ®rst Corona camera ...... 185 A troubled programme...... 187 Discoverer ®nally makes headway...... 188 Making plans for primates ...... 188 Too much monkey business...... 189 ``X'' marks the monkey ...... 190 Supervised training begins ...... 190 Conducting tests of the biopack ...... 191 The vanishing programme ...... 195 End of a mission...... 195 Contents xi

Plans on hold ...... 197 A cover story revealed ...... 198 Sally, Amy and Moe ...... 199 Safely recovered ...... 199 Tests and more tests ...... 199 References ...... 200

8 Pioneers in a weightless world ...... 203 A crop of satellite dogs ...... 203 Perfecting the hardware for manned ¯ight ...... 204 Developing Vostok ...... 204 Belka and Strelka orbit the Earth and return ...... 204 Dog watch ...... 205 Publicising space ¯ights ...... 207 The race to put a man in orbit ...... 207 The Nedelin disaster ...... 208 Pchelka and Mushka ...... 209 Siberian weather and self-destruct mechanisms ...... 210 The ®nal hurdles...... 212 Ivan Ivanovich ¯ies ...... 212 Dress rehearsal for a manned ¯ight...... 213 The ®nal canine mission ...... 215 The passing of Korolev ...... 216 Twenty-two days in space ...... 217 The French Space Connection ...... 219 Rats and cats and pig-tail monkeys...... 219 The Veronique rockets ...... 220 Establishing CERMA...... 220 The ®rst ¯ights ...... 222 A programme begins with Hector...... 222 Pollux takes to the skies ...... 225 A cat named Felicette ...... 225 Safe recovery ...... 227 Monkeys in the ¯ight line...... 228 Selecting the candidates ...... 229 Martine lifts off ...... 230 Polish rocketry ...... 234 Biological studies on mice ...... 234 References ...... 236

9 Biting the hand ...... 239 Ed Dittmer and the chimpanzees ...... 239 An ``innovative experience'' ...... 239 A demonstration ¯ight required ...... 241 xii Contents

Setting up the chain of responsibility...... 241 Mercury±Redstone 2 ...... 242 Training the candidates ...... 242 Trick or treat on the training machine...... 243 Chimpanzee subject 65 ...... 244 Choosing the best candidates ...... 245 Ham is given the task ...... 249 Into the unknown ...... 249 Ham prepares to make history ...... 249 MR-2 and a primate passenger ...... 251 Delays and more delays ...... 251 Lift-off!...... 251 Monitoring the ¯ight ...... 252 Heading for a splashdown...... 253 Recovering the capsule ...... 253 A little shaken but safe ...... 255 Back home again ...... 255 Enough of the glory...... 255 Death of a true space pioneer ...... 257 A much beloved chimpanzee ...... 258 Understanding Enos ...... 259 Beaten to the punch...... 259 Defeat, and the road to recovery ...... 260 An American in orbit ...... 260 The space chimps go back into training ...... 260 Enos: man or chimpanzee? ...... 261 One troublesome primate ...... 262 A chimp behaving badly ...... 263 Enos in orbit ...... 264 The reluctant chimponaut ...... 265 Countdown and lift-off...... 265 A voice from orbit ...... 267 One very irritated space traveller ...... 268 Retro®re, and the journey home...... 268 Facing the press ...... 268 Paving the way for John Glenn ...... 269 A one-time space traveller ...... 269 Results of the chimpanzee ¯ights ...... 269 Goliath and Scatback ...... 270 The mighty Atlas rocket ...... 270 A rocket to carry men into space ...... 271 Test ¯ights ...... 271 Overcoming a bad reputation...... 272 The sad saga of Goliath...... 272 Victim of a failure ...... 272 Contents xiii

A monkey called Scatback ...... 273 Lostatsea...... 273 Further failures ...... 274 References ...... 275

10 Cosmos/Bion:The age of the biosatellites ...... 277 Dogs spend 22 days in space...... 277 The effects of space ¯ight ...... 278 Studying the biomedical problems of space ¯ight...... 279 Life sciences comes to Ames Research Center ...... 279 NASA'S biosatellites ...... 280 Space biology gets more scienti®c ...... 280 The ®rst primate biosatellite ...... 282 Cold War collaboration ...... 284 American participation in Cosmos/Bion ...... 285 Experiments on Cosmos/Bion 782...... 287 Cosmos 782 ®ndings ...... 289 Cosmos 936 and 1129 ...... 290 Novel experiments on rats...... 290 Cosmos continues despite Cold War ...... 292 Monkeys ¯y on Cosmos ...... 293 Politics and biosatellites in the 1990s ...... 297 The ®nal Bion mission ...... 299 Animal rights groups pressure NASA ...... 299 Preparing monkeys for Bion 11 ...... 300 The tragedy of Bion 11 ...... 301 The impact of Bion ...... 302 References ...... 303

11 End of an era ...... 307 China looks to the future ...... 307 The T-7A rocket ...... 308 Mission experiments...... 309 Choosing the canine candidates ...... 310 Project Gemini ...... 311 Early biological experiments ...... 311 Tortoises in a race to the moon...... 312 The Zond programme ...... 312 Trouble on the outbound journey ...... 313 Zond splashes down...... 313 More tortoises to the moon...... 315 The Frog Otolith Experiment ...... 315 Preparation for ¯ight ...... 317 xiv Contents

Of rockets and pocket mice...... 318 Tiny space travellers ...... 319 Bound for the moon ...... 320 More mice on Skylab...... 321 Weaving webs in space...... 323 Studying spiders ...... 324 First ®sh to ¯y ...... 324 Creating a tangled web...... 324 Return to Earth ...... 326 ``Surplus to Requirements'' ...... 326 Coulston takes over ...... 328 A new animal facility ...... 329 Awareness and protests grow ...... 330 Preventable losses ...... 331 Formal charges laid ...... 331 An ``arbitrary and capricious'' decision ...... 333 End of an anthropoid era ...... 334 References ...... 335

12 Shuttling into space ...... 337 The era of the Space Shuttle ...... 337 Creating suitable habitats ...... 337 Solving the problems ...... 338 Shuttle life science begins ...... 339 Some serious monkey business...... 341 Spacelab experiments ...... 342 The no-name monkeys ...... 343 Tragedy, and a lengthy hiatus ...... 344 Back to business again ...... 344 Rats and the meaning of life ...... 345 One giant leap for amphibians...... 345 The very reluctant astronaut ...... 346 Froggie he did ride ...... 346 Some surprising developments ...... 347 Unexpected behaviour ...... 347 Spacelab and life sciences ...... 347 The ®rst Spacelab life sciences mission...... 348 A question of muscular atrophy ...... 348 Spacelab ¯ies again ...... 349 Rodents lead the way in research ...... 351 Astronauts and AstroNewts...... 351 Tanks, tests and transparent ®sh ...... 352 Flying ®sh and hornworms ...... 354 Contents xv

STS-90 Neurolab ...... 354 A veritable raft of experiments...... 354 Spacelab, for the ®nal time ...... 355 Rats in hiding...... 357 Weightlessness and the development of muscles ...... 358 Spacemen and specimens...... 358 A dwindling population ...... 359 Post-¯ight solutions ...... 360 Flightless birds and avian experiments...... 360 The Russian quail egg story ...... 361 Beatles in orbit? ...... 362 China resumes biological ¯ights ...... 363 Shenzhou and state secrecy ...... 363 Talking of taikonauts ...... 364 A second Shenzhou ...... 364 A programme shrouded in mystery ...... 365 Tragedy strikes again ...... 366 Sole survivors ...... 366 Not a place for stressed-out scorpions ...... 367 Shenzhou ¯ights continue ...... 368 References ...... 370

13 Epilogue ...... 373

Appendix A U.S. monkey research ¯ights ...... 375 Appendix B Soviet space dog programme ...... 379 Appendix C U.S. biological rocket ¯ights, 1946±1960...... 383 Appendix D French biological rocket ¯ights, 1961±1967 ...... 387 Appendix E Chinese T-7 sounding rocket launches...... 389 Appendix F Bion research ¯ights...... 391 Appendix G Space shuttle life science orbital ¯ights...... 393

Index ...... 397