Albert I was a
rhesus macaque
The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...
monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...
and the first
mammal
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...
launched on a rocket (
V-2 Rocket
The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...
"Blossom No. 3") on June 18, 1948.
[Beischer, Dietrich E. Fregly, Alfred R. (1962]
ANIMALS AND MAN IN SPACE. A CHRONOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY THROUGH THE YEAR 1960
NAVAL SCHOOL OF AVIATION MEDICINE PENSACOLA FL.
The launch was staged at
White Sands Proving Ground
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity ( ...
,
Las Cruces,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. Albert I, a nine-pound monkey, was
anesthetized
Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...
and placed inside the rocket's crew capsule in the nose of the V-2 rocket.
The flight did not reach outer space.
Background
The
Hermes program, beginning in 1944, had the stated objective of testing missiles, in particular reverse-engineering the German V-2 rocket. It was based out of White Sands in New Mexico and had launched 37 V-2 rockets prior to the launch of Albert I, 8 of which carried biological payloads consisting of seeds and/or fruit flies.
Albert was the first mammal launched on a rocket by the United States, and would have been the first mammal in space if his flight were successful.
Launch
The rocket, designated "missile number 37", launched at 03:22 on June 18, 1948.
The systems intended to record Albert's respiratory functions had failed prior to launch, and there were indications that Albert had died due to the cramped nature of the capsule before the rocket had left the ground.
The turbine had burnt out prematurely at 57.5 seconds, causing the rocket to fall short of the
Kármán line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is a conventional definition of the Outer space#Boundary, edge of space; it is widely but not universally accepted. The international record-keeping body Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI ( ...
, reaching an altitude of 39 miles (62 km). Post-flight investigations concluded that the likely cause of failure was an electrical fault causing the alcohol fuel supply to shut early.
The parachute also failed to deploy, meaning that if Albert had survived the capsule conditions, he would have died on impact anyway.
Results
The flight recorder had been recovered after the flight and indicated a complete lack of physiological activity, indicating that either Albert had died before the launch or that the entire biomonitoring system had failed.
This meant that the launch had produced no useful data regarding the functioning of biological life in space, and was therefore deemed a failure.
The outcomes of the Albert I launch were used to prepare for the launch of
Albert II on June 14, 1949, which successfully reached space on a suborbital flight. However, Albert II also died, due to a parachute failure, but the recorder indicated that he had survived the flight until that point.
See also
*
Monkeys and apes in space
Before Human spaceflight, humans went into space in the 1960s, several other animals in space, animals were launched into space, including numerous other primates, so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of spaceflight. The ...
*
Animals in space
Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted. Later, many species were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight m ...
*
Laika
Laika ( ; , ; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into lo ...
, a
Russian space dog, the first animal to orbit the Earth (November 3, 1957)
*
Ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...
, a chimpanzee, the first
great ape
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...
in space (January 31, 1961)
*
Enos, the first chimpanzee and third primate to orbit the Earth (November 29, 1961)
*
List of individual monkeys
This annotated list of individual monkeys includes monkeys who are in some way famous or notable. The list does not include notable apes or fictional primates.
Monkey actors
* Crystal – (brown capuchin) played in ''The Hangover Part II'', ''N ...
References
{{reflist
Individual monkeys
Non-human primate astronauts of the American space program