On May 28, 1959, two monkeys named Able and Baker became the first monkeys to go to space and make it back alive.
Miss Able was a rhesus monkey from Kansas, and her crewmate Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey from Peru. They were tucked inside tight capsules, covered in various sensors and electrodes and situated inside the nose cone of the rocket. The two space monkeys lifted off on a Jupiter rocket from Cape Canaveral and reached an altitude of over 300 miles. The whole flight lasted 16 minutes, and they got to experience weightlessness for 9 minutes. The capsule reached a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. It traveled about 1,700 miles downrange before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico. Both monkeys survived the trip to space and back. However, Able died in surgery a few days later from a bad reaction to anesthesia while doctors were working to remove electrodes from under her skin.
Miss Able was a rhesus monkey from Kansas, and her crewmate Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey from Peru. They were tucked inside tight capsules, covered in various sensors and electrodes and situated inside the nose cone of the rocket. The two space monkeys lifted off on a Jupiter rocket from Cape Canaveral and reached an altitude of over 300 miles. The whole flight lasted 16 minutes, and they got to experience weightlessness for 9 minutes. The capsule reached a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. It traveled about 1,700 miles downrange before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico. Both monkeys survived the trip to space and back. However, Able died in surgery a few days later from a bad reaction to anesthesia while doctors were working to remove electrodes from under her skin.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space. On May 28, 1959, two monkeys named Abel and Baker became
00:07the first monkeys to go to space and make it back alive. Miss Abel was a
00:11rhesus monkey from Kansas and her crewmate Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey
00:15from Peru. They were tucked inside tight capsules covered in various sensors and
00:20electrodes and situated inside the nose cone of the rocket. The two space monkeys
00:25lifted off on a Jupiter rocket from Cape Canaveral and reached an altitude of
00:28over 300 miles. The whole flight lasted 16 minutes and they got to experience
00:33weightlessness for nine minutes. The capsule reached a top speed of 10,000
00:38miles per hour. It traveled about 1,700 miles downrange before splashing down in
00:43the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico. Both monkeys survived the trip to space and
00:47back. However, Abel died in surgery a few days later from a bad reaction to
00:52anesthesia while doctors were working to remove electrodes from under her skin.
00:55And that's what happened on this day in space.