Miss Baker Miss Baker Miss Baker (1957 – November 29, 1984) was a squirrel monkey who in 1959 became, along with rhesus macaque Miss Able, one of the first two animals launched into space by the United States and safely returned. Previous United States efforts at launching monkeys to space had met with the animals' demise from suffocation or parachute failure, and Soviet Union efforts had fared little better, to the chagrin of animal rights activists. The Soviet Union had recovered two dogs, the first mammals to be recovered from suborbital space flight, from an altitude of on July 22, 1951 and
Miss Baker the type of anesthetic death every surgeon fears," said Colonel Robert Hullinghorst, deputy at Ft. Knox where the surgery took place, "We don't know exactly why it occurs." An autopsy found no problems that may have contributed to her death. Able is stuffed and on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Owing to their successful return from space to the USS Kiowa (ATF-72) and their crew, Able and Baker appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine, June 15, 1959. In 1962, Pensacola caretakers held a marriage ceremony to wed Miss Baker to Big George. Miss Baker lived at