Space Chimp

Seen on top of a fridge at Olivia's, the café at The Outwoods this afternoon. We'd gone there for coffee and cake as a respite from the very welcome rain. Basil managed to get a run.

The chimp is not wearing a recognisable outfit. Both the USA and the Soviet Union sent monkeys into Space as a precursor to sending up humans. They weren't dressed in astronaut clothing though, but anaethetised and strapped down to avoid moving instruments and getting stressed out.

Enos, a chimp from Cameroon bought from a Florida wildlife centre, became the first experimental monkey fired off by the USA in November 1961. Launch was delayed by two and a half hours caused mainly by mistakes by the launch crew. Once aloft, Enos was to carry out sequences of tasks which rewarded him with water and banana pellets if he got them right but gave him an electric shock if he didn't. The equipment went wrong and kept giving him electric shocks. He continued to press levers.

He had to wait three hours before being rescued from the Atlantic Ocean during which time he pulled off all his restraints and medical sensors and ripped out his urinary catheter. Praise be, he returned to his normal calm self afterwards and was rewarded with as many banana pellets and water as he wanted. NASA has never released the full details of the trauma he endured.

Sadly, he died a year later of a form of dysentery which was unresponsive to antibiotics. Read the story of Enos.