Enos,
a five-year-old chimpanzee, wasn't the first animal to orbit the
Earth. That honor belongs to a Soviet dog named Laika, who was
launched and achieved orbit in 1957. (It is a dubious honor, since
Laika wasn't expected to survive and indeed did die in orbit. Still,
Russian officials recently unveiled a monument to Laika, who was a
stray dog that Soviet scientists found and trained for spaceflight;
many stray dogs no doubt have shorter lives and worse deaths.)
Enos
also wasn't the first animal to be launched into space by U.S.
scientists. In 1947 scientists launched fruit flies into space, and
these insects survived cosmic radiation and other spaceflight
conditions.
Enos
wasn't even the first chimp in space! That honor goes to Ham, who was
launched into a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961. He wasn't just a
passenger; he pushed levers as he had been trained to do—and he was
only a smidge slower than usual, down on Earth, so he proved that
humans could perform tasks on a spaceflight.
No,
Enos wasn't the first this or that or this other, but he was the
first animal to achieve orbit on a U.S. spacecraft, and he was the
first ever chimpanzee to achieve orbit.
Enos
had more than 1,250 hours of training for his flight, including
aircraft flights on which he encountered a certain amount of g
force. And on this date in 1961, Enos flew into space on board
Mercury Atlas 5. He was to complete three orbits.
Enos
and the Mercury spacecraft completed the first orbit in one hour and
28 seconds. They completed a second orbit, but they were then brought
back to Earth because the spacecraft was not maintaining altitude as
it should.
Enos
had a luckier ending than poor Laika. He survived splashdown and,
when removed from his capsule, rescuers say that he jumped for joy
and ran around the deck of the recovery ship, shaking their hands.
Here's an old movie clip about Enos and his flight. Unfortunately, we
have no film of a joyful Enos shaking people's hands.
This much longer movie about chimp astronauts doesn't focus on Enos at
all, but gives you a good idea of what training he had to undergo.
Also
on this date:
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