Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle Book

Authors' preface     xvii
Acknowledgements     xxiii
Foreword     xxv
List of figures     xxxi
List of abbreviations and acronyms     xxxvii
Prologue     xliii
Taming the rockets: From wrath to research     1
The man behind the vision     1
Dreams of tomorrow     2
Rocket man     2
A minimum rocket     3
The work begins     4
Creating the rockets     4
Higher and heavier     5
Von Braun and Peenemunde     5
Developing the A-5     6
Birth of the "terror weapon"     6
Severe setbacks and relocation     7
From Peenemunde to prison     9
Learning the secrets     9
A rocket named Waterfall     10
The Resistance and the rocket     10
The devastation begins     11
Operation Paperclip     12
A brutal bombardment     13
Means of escape     13
Death in a Berlin bunker     15
Beating the Russians to the spoils of war     15
A covert operation     16
Operation Backfire     17
V-2 rockets launched by the Allies     18
An agreement with the Allies     18
Working for the Americans     19
A close-won race     19
Sent to the steppes     19
An engineer named Korolev     20
Russia and the V-2     22
References     22
Holloman and the Albert Hall of Fame     25
An inauspicious start     25
Punching a hole in the sand     27
The coming of the missiles     27
America takes over     27
Thunder across the desert     27
Holloman is born     28
A place known as White Sands     29
A prime testing facility     29
Putting the pieces together     30
A smaller sounding rocket     30
A rocket for science, not war     30
Expanding the scope     30
Jumping on the bandwagon     31
Project Blossom     31
Animals to ride the rockets     32
Unwilling but essential test subjects     32
The programme's guiding spirit     33
A unique proposal     34
Exploring the possibilities     35
An irresistible challenge      36
The men, the mission and the monkeys     37
Right place, right time     37
A wonderful opportunity     37
Project Albert     38
Finding a way     38
A suitable flight subject     39
Training - with a note of caution     40
The Albert capsule     40
Too much monkey business     41
The Albert flights begin     41
Preparing Albert for flight     42
Straps, supports and steel springs     42
An end before a beginning     45
"Disturbed about the whole thing"     45
Identifying the problems     46
Trying to find some answers     46
Another monkey called Albert     46
Henry and Simons try again     47
If at first     47
Simons departs, and solutions are sought     48
The frustration of failure     50
The final animal flight     50
"The V-2 clobbered in"     50
Aerobee flies     51
Overcoming the difficulties     51
A successor vehicle     52
Partial success     52
Breakthroughs at last     54
Patricia and Michael     55
A great milestone achieved     55
Analysing the results     55
The sad saga of an ill-tempered monkey     58
References     58
Pioneers of destiny: The suborbital dog flights     61
Have you ever seen a rocket being launched?     61
A programme in its infancy     62
Preparing for biological flights     62
Which animals would fly on rockets?     63
Selecting the first animal cosmonauts     63
Training dogs to fly in rockets     64
"Return with victory": the first dog flight     66
Tsygan and Dezik lead the way     66
Launch time draws near     67
Shaken but not stirred     68
The life of a space dog     68
Monitoring the health of the dogs     69
The second series of dog flights     70
Spacesuits and life-support systems     70
One small step at a time     73
Things change in 1956     74
Devising the best recovery system     74
The West, and the worst kept secret     75
Oleg Gazenko becomes involved     76
A new and more powerful rocket     77
The first R-2A dogs      78
Creating a biological, orbital satellite     81
A programme ends, another begins     82
References     84
High-altitude research     85
A curious phenomenon     85
First animal passengers     86
On fire, but safe     86
The hazards of high-altitude flight     87
A fatal error     88
Research balloons and rockets     89
Conducting experiments with cosmic radiation     89
The return of David Simons     91
Problems continue     92
Monkeys on instalment plans     93
Summarising the flights     94
Project Man High is born     96
A man and a monkey?     98
German rockets for science     98
Kumulus and Cirrus rockets take to the skies     99
Gerhard Zucker and his problem rockets     100
"The Fastest Man Alive"     101
Understanding forces that can kill     101
On the path to medical research     102
John Paul Stapp's "Gee-Whizz" machine     103
The sad saga of the Holloman hogs     103
Fast rides and fractures     106
A sled called Sonic Wind      106
The chimps and Project Whoosh     107
Animals, humans and g-forces     108
Faster than a speeding bullet     109
First to volunteer     109
Faster and still faster     111
Forty times the pull of gravity     112
Days of the Daisy Track     113
Animal research continues     114
The rocket sled bears     115
An application to automobile safety     115
Stapp's work continues at Holloman     116
Chimpanzees begin training for space flight     117
References     118
Able and Baker lead the way     121
NASA and the ARPA     121
Project Mouse-In-Able     121
A very small unit with limited space     122
A victim of the space age     125
Training the satellite mice     125
Project "Down to Earth"     126
The Army looks to space     126
Gordo, a.k.a. Old Reliable     127
Creating a Bioflight capsule     127
Gordo blazes a trail     127
Ready for lift-off     128
Gordo takes flight     129
Able and Baker     130
The U.S. Navy joins in      130
A monkey is chosen     131
Miss Baker     133
A ride aboard a Jupiter     134
Preparations continue     134
Set for launch     136
"Are the monkeys safe?"     136
Flight results come in     138
Losing Able     138
Miss Baker makes friends     139
Moving on     139
A much-loved monkey     141
References     141
The most famous dog in history     143
A "simple" satellite     143
Getting the R-7 to fly     144
Space dogs move centre stage     145
One very busy month     147
Cutting corners on Sputnik 2     147
Selecting the dog to make history     150
Preparing dogs for space travel     151
Which dog would fly?     153
Flight preparations     155
A sense of excitement     156
Pre-launch     157
Laika makes history     160
Sputnik 2 achieves orbit     160
Critical problems arise     161
The world takes note of the accomplishment     162
Prayers and protests for an unnamed dog      162
Hiding the facts     163
Laika's legacy     164
References     165
Prelude to manned space flight     169
SAM, or the School of Aviation Medicine     169
Devising an escape rocket     170
An animal space programme takes shape     170
A monkey gets a name     171
Sam rides a Little Joe     172
Locating the capsule     172
Tracking Sam     172
An exemplary job     175
The second flight     176
From Sam to Miss Sam     177
One fast, hot and crushing ride     177
Of mice and men     179
A meticulous sham     179
Background history of Project Corona     181
Setting things in place     181
First flight of Discoverer     182
A near-polar orbit and a predicament     183
The mice that soared     184
The first Corona camera     185
A troubled programme     187
Discoverer finally makes headway     188
Making plans for primates     188
Too much monkey business     189
"X" marks the monkey     190
Supervised training begins      190
Conducting tests of the biopack     191
The vanishing programme     195
End of a mission     195
Plans on hold     197
A cover story revealed     198
Sally, Amy and Moe     199
Safely recovered     199
Tests and more tests     199
References     200
Pioneers in a weightless world     203
A crop of satellite dogs     203
Perfecting the hardware for manned flight     204
Developing Vostok     204
Belka and Strelka orbit the Earth and return     204
Dog watch     205
Publicising space flights     207
The race to put a man in orbit     207
The Nedelin disaster     208
Pchelka and Mushka     209
Siberian weather and self-destruct mechanisms     210
The final hurdles     212
Ivan Ivanovich flies     212
Dress rehearsal for a manned flight     213
The final canine mission     215
The passing of Korolev     216
Twenty-two days in space     217
The French Space Connection     219
Rats and cats and pig-tail monkeys      219
The Veronique rockets     220
Establishing CERMA     220
The first flights     222
A programme begins with Hector     222
Pollux takes to the skies     225
A cat named Felicette     225
Safe recovery     227
Monkeys in the flight line     228
Selecting the candidates     229
Martine lifts off     230
Polish rocketry     234
Biological studies on mice     234
References     236
Biting the hand     239
Ed Dittmer and the chimpanzees     239
An "innovative experience"     239
A demonstration flight required     241
Setting up the chain of responsibility     241
Mercury-Redstone 2     242
Training the candidates     242
Trick or treat on the training machine     243
Chimpanzee subject 65     244
Choosing the best candidates     245
Ham is given the task     249
Into the unknown     249
Ham prepares to make history     249
MR-2 and a primate passenger     251
Delays and more delays     251
Lift-off!      251
Monitoring the flight     252
Heading for a splashdown     253
Recovering the capsule     253
A little shaken but safe     255
Back home again     255
Enough of the glory     255
Death of a true space pioneer     257
A much beloved chimpanzee     258
Understanding Enos     259
Beaten to the punch     259
Defeat, and the road to recovery     260
An American in orbit     260
The space chimps go back into training     260
Enos: man or chimpanzee?     261
One troublesome primate     262
A chimp behaving badly     263
Enos in orbit     264
The reluctant chimponaut     265
Countdown and lift-off     265
A voice from orbit     267
One very irritated space traveller     268
Retrofire, and the journey home     268
Facing the press     268
Paving the way for John Glenn     269
A one-time space traveller     269
Results of the chimpanzee flights     269
Goliath and Scatback     270
The mighty Atlas rocket     270
A rocket to carry men into space     271
Test flights     271
Overcoming a bad reputation     272
The sad saga of Goliath     272
Victim of a failure     272
A monkey called Scatback     273
Lost at sea     273
Further failures     274
References     275
Cosmos/Bion: The age of the biosatellites     277
Dogs spend 22 days in space     277
The effects of space flight     278
Studying the biomedical problems of space flight     279
Life sciences comes to Ames Research Center     279
NASA'S biosatellites     280
Space biology gets more scientific     280
The first primate biosatellite     282
Cold War collaboration     284
American participation in Cosmos/Bion     285
Experiments on Cosmos/Bion 782     287
Cosmos 782 findings     289
Cosmos 936 and 1129     290
Novel experiments on rats     290
Cosmos continues despite Cold War     292
Monkeys fly on Cosmos     293
Politics and biosatellites in the 1990s     297
The final Bion mission     299
Animal rights groups pressure NASA     299
Preparing monkeys for Bion 11     300
The tragedy of Bion 11     301
The impact of Bion     302
References     303
End of an era     307
China looks to the future     307
The T-7A rocket     308
Mission experiments     309
Choosing the canine candidates     310
Project Gemini     311
Early biological experiments     311
Tortoises in a race to the moon     312
The Zond programme     312
Trouble on the outbound journey     313
Zond splashes down     313
More tortoises to the moon     315
The Frog Otolith Experiment     315
Preparation for flight     317
Of rockets and pocket mice     318
Tiny space travellers     319
Bound for the moon     320
More mice on Skylab     321
Weaving webs in space     323
Studying spiders     324
First fish to fly     324
Creating a tangled web     324
Return to Earth     326
"Surplus to Requirements"     326
Coulston takes over      328
A new animal facility     329
Awareness and protests grow     330
Preventable losses     331
Formal charges laid     331
An "arbitrary and capricious" decision     333
End of an anthropoid era     334
References     335
Shuttling into space     337
The era of the Space Shuttle     337
Creating suitable habitats     337
Solving the problems     338
Shuttle life science begins     339
Some serious monkey business     341
Spacelab experiments     342
The no-name monkeys     343
Tragedy, and a lengthy hiatus     344
Back to business again     344
Rats and the meaning of life     345
One giant leap for amphibians     345
The very reluctant astronaut     346
Froggie he did ride     346
Some surprising developments     347
Unexpected behaviour     347
Spacelab and life sciences     347
The first Spacelab life sciences mission     348
A question of muscular atrophy     348
Spacelab flies again     349
Rodents lead the way in research      351
Astronauts and AstroNewts     351
Tanks, tests and transparent fish     352
Flying fish and hornworms     354
STS-90 Neurolab     354
A veritable raft of experiments     354
Spacelab, for the final time     355
Rats in hiding     357
Weightlessness and the development of muscles     358
Spacemen and specimens     358
A dwindling population     359
Post-flight solutions     360
Flightless birds and avian experiments     360
The Russian quail egg story     361
Beatles in orbit?     362
China resumes biological flights     363
Shenzhou and state secrecy     363
Talking of taikonauts     364
A second Shenzhou     364
A programme shrouded in mystery     365
Tragedy strikes again     366
Sole survivors     366
Not a place for stressed-out scorpions     367
Shenzhou flights continue     368
References     370
Epilogue     373
U.S. monkey research flights     375
Soviet space dog programme     379
U.S. biological rocket flights, 1946-1960      383
French biological rocket flights, 1961-1967     387
Chinese T-7 sounding rocket launches     389
Bion research flights     391
Space shuttle life science orbital flights     393
Index     397