Miss Baker subsequently recovered more dogs. The United States had flown monkeys and mice by Aerobee rocket to heights below the edge of space beginning in 1951. The squirrel monkey who was to become known as Miss Baker was purchased along with 25 other squirrel monkeys at a pet shop in Miami, Florida, and brought to the Naval Aviation Medical School in Pensacola. Fourteen of the candidates tolerated confinement for periods up to 24 hours, electrodes all over their bodies, and monitoring at all hours. Miss Baker "stood out from the rest because of her intelligence and loving, docile manner", relayed Colin
Miss Baker nose with model cement, and she was fitted into a snug capsule of shoebox size, 9¾ × 12½ × 6¾ inches (24.8 × 31.8 × 17.1 cm) insulated with rubber and fiberglass. Life support was an oxygen bottle with a pressure valve, and lithium hydroxide to absorb exhaled carbon dioxide and moisture. On May 28, 1959, at 2:39 am, a Jupiter rocket lifted Miss Baker and Miss Able to an altitude of through an acceleration of 38 gs for a 16-minute flight which also included 9 minutes of weightlessness. The flight traveled downrange from the pad at Cape Canaveral launch