Marshall Space Flight Center a future goal of manned flight, monkeys Able and Baker were the first living creatures recovered from outer space on May 28, 1959. They had been carried in the nose cone on a Jupiter missile to an altitude of and a distance of , successfully withstanding 38 times the normal pull of gravity. Their survival during speeds over 10,000 miles per hour was America's first biological step toward putting a man into space. On October 21, 1959, President Eisenhower approved the transfer of all Army space-related activities to NASA. This was accomplished effective July 1, 1960, when 4,670 civilian employees,
Miss Earth women wear ankle-length dresses. Nevertheless, her participation in the pageant received approval from the Dalai Lama.<ref name="csmonitor.com/2006/1017/p07s02-wosc.html"></ref><ref name="misstibet.com/history/2006/stories/20061206-miss_tibet_goes_global.html"></ref><ref name="xeni.net/trek/2006/11/miss-tibet-crowned-headed-for-miss.html"></ref><ref name="news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7129296.stm"></ref> Carousel Productions licensed the Miss Cuba organization in 2007 to select the first Cuban representative at Miss Earth. Ariana Barouk won; she became the first Miss Cuba in several decades, and competed at the Miss Earth Pageant.<ref name="showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view_article.php?article_id"></ref> Also in 2007, Miss Earth made history when delegates from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet all competed together for the first time in an international pageant in spite of political sensitivities. In 2008, the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan, one of