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| Able & Baker launch cover with Goldcraft cachet, postmarked Port Canaveral, May 23, 1959. (Space Monkey Baker photo does not come with the cover). |
Primates Able and Baker, aboard a Jupiter missile nose cone, were launched 300 miles into space and landed 1,700 miles down range from Cape Canaveral. Telemetry data showed that responses of the animals were normal for conditions. During boost when higher g-loads were sustained, body temperature, respiration, pulse rate, and heartbeat rose but were in tolerable limits. During the weightless period, the responses of both primates were near normal - so near that Baker appeared to doze according to telemetry. Upon re-entry, responses rose again but in a settled state. (Recovery ships - naval tug USS Kiowa and two destroyers).
(Extracted from the book "PROJECT MERCURY ...one step into space" by Donald O. Schultz)
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| Photo: "The monkey also pumps a lever to get food pallets. It learns that the lever will deliver food when pumped 25 times. While pumping food in space, the monkey will also transmit data to scientists on the ground. Sunday Group. June 14, 1959." |
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| Photo: Able in space suit. |
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| Photo: Recovery of the nose cone that carried Able & Baker by USS Kiowa, May 28, 1959. |
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| Photo: "BACK FROM SPACE: On the Kiowa: The space monkey Able was released from its capsule Thursday after a ride through space in the nose cone of a Jupiter missile launched at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The cone was picked up by the Navy recovery ship Kiowa in the Atlantic 1500 miles southeast of the launching site. U.S. Army photo by A.P. wirephoto." |
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| Photo: Space monkey Baker under medical observation after journeyed through space. |
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| Photo: Space monkey Able died in 1959, during an operation to remove a recording instrument from its body that was implanted to record its physical condition during the spaceflight. |
