Monkeys in space? Sounds bananas—but it happened! This photo shows pioneering animal astronauts Miss Able (large monkey on table) and Miss Baker (small monkey on table) at a NASA press conference in Pensacola, Florida, on May 30, 1959. The furry duo was meeting news reporters and photographers after making history as the first primates to survive spaceflight. The monkeys accomplished this feat two years before the first human reached space.
The journey taken by Able, a 7-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a 1-pound squirrel monkey, helped scientists study the effects of space travel on living creatures. On May 28, 1959, the pair blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Jupiter AM-18 rocket. The craft reached speeds of 10,000 miles per hour as it shot about 300 miles into the air. Able and Baker experienced nine minutes of weightlessness before reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Then the special capsule carrying the twosome parachuted into the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Navy found the space monkeys unharmed—and ready to enjoy some peanuts.
The monkeys had traveled 1,700 miles in 15 minutes. The groundbreaking trip turned Able and Baker into celebrities. They made the cover of Life magazine—though reports at the time describe Able as shy and Baker as “more interested in food than fame.”
Able died during a medical procedure soon after returning to Earth. But Baker delighted fans visiting the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, until her death in 1984. Today both monkeys are remembered for helping pave the way for human space exploration.
—Mary Kate Frank