Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, waits in her bio-pack couch before her flight on the Jupiter AM-18 rocket. The Jupiter AM-18 mission, launched on May 28, 1959, carried Miss Baker and an American-born rhesus monkey, Able, into sub-orbit. Both monkeys were recovered in good condition, making Jupiter AM-18 the first mission to successfully carry animals into space and back.
NASA
Able is readied for placement into a capsule for a preflight test.
This photograph shows Able after the recovery of the Jupiter rocket's nose cone by the U.S.S. Kiowa. Though Able survived the flight, she died a few days later from anaesthesia complications during a procedure to remove an electrode.
Able's body was preserved and is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
Sam, a two-year-old rhesus monkey, and his handler after Sam's flight on the Little Joe 2 spacecraft on Dec. 4, 1959. Sam was named after the School of Aviation Medicine, in San Antonio, Texas.
Sam in his fiberglass contoured couch. After his flight, Sam was kept for observation for several years at Brooks Air Force Base, but eventually retired to live out the rest of his life at the San Antonio Zoo.
Miss Sam, a six-pound rhesus monkey and Sam's mate, is placed in a container for her Jan. 21, 1960 flight aboard the Little Joe 1B.
Miss Sam stares out from her contoured couch prior to a test flight.
One of two squirrel monkeys selected to fly aboard the science module of Spacelab 3 in Challenger's cargo bay is tended to on Earth prior to its flight in space, which would last from April 29 to May 6, 1985.
Astronaut William E. Thornton observes one of the two squirel monkeys aboard the Spacelab 3 science module.
America's first human astronaut Alan Shepard is photographed with Ham, a chimpanzee who preceded him in space by five months with a sub-orbital flight aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on Jan. 31, 1961. Ham's successful mission paved the way for Shepard's mission on May 5, 1961.
Ham is greeted by the commander of the recovery ship U.S.S. Donner upon splashing back to earth. After his flight, Ham -- whose name stood for the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center -- spent 17 years at Washington, D.C.'s national zoo before moving to a zoo in North Carolina. He died at age 26, and his remains were buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.
