Kansas has been home to several astronauts: Ron Evans, Joe Engle, and Steven Hawley, for example.
But before these astronauts took flight, there was another native Kansan who ventured to outer space: Well, not an astronaut, but an astromonkey.
This is the true story of one of America’s first non-human space travelers and her connection to our state.
The year was 1957. The Soviet Union surprised the world by launching the first artificial satellite, known as Sputnik. This caused major concerns that the United States was falling behind in the space race. It caused the U.S. to expedite space research.
Mankind had speculated about space travel for centuries, but practical scientific questions remained: Could the human body survive and function in systems designed to protect from the oxygen- and gravity-deprived environment of outer space? Scientific researchers redoubled their efforts to test such questions.
The first living mammal to be launched into orbit was a mixed-breed dog named Laika who was launched by the Russians on Sputnik 2. (Americans nicknamed the rocket “Muttnik.”) Laika survived the launch but, as expected, did not survive the flight. Continue reading “Miss Able, astromonkey”
