Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle

Front Cover
Springer Science & Business Media, Jan 24, 2007 - Science - 406 pages

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.

 

Contents

From wrath to research
1
Highaltitude research A curious phenomenon First animal passengers On re but safe The hazards of highaltitude ight A fatal error Research balloons ...
5
Holloman and the Albert Hall of Fame
25
3
60
4
85
Able and Baker lead the way
121
The most famous dog in history 143
142
Prelude to manned space ight
169
Cold War collaboration
284
and 1129
290
Politics and biosatellites in the 1990s
297
References
303
Project Gemini
311
12
337
Tragedy and a lengthy hiatus
344
Rodents lead the way in research
351

Pioneers in a weightless world 203
202
Biting the hand
239
MercuryRedstone 2
242
Understanding Enos
259
Paving the way for John Glenn
269
The age of the biosatellites 277
276
2
360
Epilogue 373
372
U S biological rocket ights 19461960
383
Appendix F Bion research ights 391
389
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

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.

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