Animals in space human in space. On 13 December 1958, a Jupiter IRBM, AM-13, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a United States Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo was lost. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10 g of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 g of reentry at 10,000 miles per hour (16,000 km/h). The nose cone sank downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered. Monkeys Able and Baker became the first monkeys to survive spaceflight after their
Animals in space the flight in good condition. Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. Baker was the center of media attention for the next several months as she was watched closely for any ill-effects from her space flight. She was even mated in an attempt to test her reproductive system. Baker lived until 29 November 1984, at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. On 2 July 1959, a launch of a Soviet R2 rocket, which reached , carried two space dogs and Marfusa, the first