Title

Cradle, Primate, 1959. Creator: Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

Caption

This cradle secured Baker, a female squirrel monkey, in her biocapsule during the first flight to recover a primate from space. On May 28, 1959, an Army Ballistic Missile Agency Jupiter rocket at Cape Canaveral launched Baker and Able (a female rhesus monkey housed in a separate capsule) in its nose cone. Their biomedical condition was monitored throughout the flight as part of Department of Defense experiments to determine the effects of spaceflight on living animals. They reached an altitude of approximately 300 miles, a maximum speed of 10,000 mph, and were recovered alive some 1,500 miles downrange by U.S. Navy ships. The flight provided important biomedical data for the human spaceflight program. The cradle was built by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which transferred it to NASM in 1960.

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Reference

HRM21A88_059

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

92,9Mb (3,0Mb) / 22,0in x 16,4in / 6609 x 4912 (300dpi)

Keywords

animal technology education country space mammal research monkey color primate war location Armed Forces century concept spacecraft space travel Army warfare fifties squirrel monkey 1950s United States of America Colour Smithsonian Institution United States Army National Air and Space Museum Educational Institution 20th century air and space museum US Army American America USA decade scientific institution object united states monkies U.S. Army Heritage Art NASM animal research Redstone Arsenal Army Ballistic Missile Agency U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency ABMA Mold- Sponge Rubber Overall- Steel Webbing- Plastic SPACECRAFT-Manned-Parts & Structural Components