Authors' preface xvii Acknowledgements xxiii Foreword xxv List of figures xxxi List of abbreviations and acronyms xxxvii Prologue xliii
1 Taming the rockets: From wrath to research 1 The man behind the vision 1 Dreams of tomorrow 2 Rocket man 2 A minimum rocket 3 The work begins 4 Creating the rockets 4 Higher and heavier 5 Von Braun and Peenemiinde 5 Developing the A-5 6 Birth of the "terror weapon" 6 Severe setbacks and relocation 7 From Peenemiinde to prison 9 Learning the secrets 9 A rocket named Waterfall 10 The Resistance and the rocket 10 The devastation begins 11
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Operation Paperclip 12 A brutal bombardment 13 Means of escape 13 Death in a Berlin bunker 15 Beating the Russians to the spoils of war 15 A covert operation 16 Operation Backfire 17 V-2 rockets launched by the Allies 18 An agreement with the Allies 18 Working for the Americans 19 A close-won race 19 Sent to the steppes 19 An engineer named Korolev 20 Russia and the V-2 22 References 22
2 Holloman and the Albert Hall of Fame 25 An inauspicious start 25 Punching a hole in the sand 27 The coming of the missiles 27 America takes over 27 Thunder across the desert 27 Holloman is born 28 A place known as White Sands 29 A prime testing facility 29 Putting the pieces together 30 A smaller sounding rocket 30 A rocket for science, not war 30 Expanding the scope 30 Jumping on the bandwagon 31 Project Blossom 31 Animals to ride the rockets 32 Unwilling but essential test subjects 32 The programme's guiding spirit 33 A unique proposal 34 Exploring the possibilities 35 An irresistible challenge 36 The men, the mission and the monkeys 37 Right place, right time 37 A wonderful opportunity 37 Project Albert 38 Finding a way 38
Contents vii A suitable flight subject 39 Training - with a note of caution 40 The Albert capsule 40 Too much monkey business 41 The Albert flights begin 41 Preparing Albert for flight 42 Straps, supports and steel springs 42 An end before a beginning 45 "Disturbed about the whole thing" 45 Identifying the problems 46 Trying to find some answers 46 Another monkey called Albert 46 Henry and Simons try again 47 If at first 47 Simons departs, and solutions are sought 48 The frustration of failure 50 The final animal flight 50 "The V-2 clobbered in" 50 Aerobee flies 51 Overcoming the difficulties 51 A successor vehicle 52 Partial success 52 Breakthroughs at last 54 Patricia and Michael 55 A great milestone achieved 55 Analysing the results 55 The sad saga of an ill-tempered monkey 58 References 58
Pioneers of destiny: The suborbital dog flights 61 Have you ever seen a rocket being launched? 61 A programme in its infancy 62 Preparing for biological flights 62 Which animals would fly on rockets? 63 Selecting the first animal cosmonauts 63 Training dogs to fly in rockets 64 "Return with victory": the first dog flight 66 Tsygan and Dezik lead the way 66 Launch time draws near 67 Shaken but not stirred 68 The life of a space dog 68 Monitoring the health of the dogs 69
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The second series of dog flights 70 Spacesuits and life-support systems 70 One small step at a time 73 Things change in 1956 74 Devising the best recovery system 74 The West, and the worst kept secret 75 Oleg Gazenko becomes involved 76 A new and more powerful rocket 77 The first R-2A dogs 78 Creating a biological, orbital satellite 81 A programme ends, another begins 82 References 84
High-altitude research 85 A curious phenomenon 85 First animal passengers 86 On fire, but safe 86 The hazards of high-altitude flight 87 A fatal error 88 Research balloons and rockets 89 Conducting experiments with cosmic radiation 89 The return of David Simons 91 Problems continue 92 Monkeys on instalment plans 93 Summarising the flights 94 Project Man High is born 96 A man and a monkey? 98 German rockets for science 98 Kumulus and Cirrus rockets take to the skies 99 Gerhard Zucker and his problem rockets 100 "The Fastest Man Alive" 101 Understanding forces that can kill 101 On the path to medical research 102 John Paul Stapp's "Gee-Whizz" machine 103 The sad saga of the Holloman hogs 103 Fast rides and fractures 106 A sled called Sonic Wind 106 The chimps and Project Whoosh 107 Animals, humans and g-forces 108 Faster than a speeding bullet 109 First to volunteer 109 Faster and still faster I l l Forty times the pull of gravity 112 Days of the Daisy Track 113
Contents ix Animal research continues 114 The rocket sled bears 115 An application to automobile safety 115 Stapp's work continues at Hollornan 116 Chimpanzees begin training for space flight 117 References 118
5 Able and Baker lead the way 121 NASA and the ARPA 121 Project Mouse-In-Able 121 A very small unit with limited space 122 A victim of the space age 125 Training the satellite mice 125 Project "Down to Earth" 126 The Army looks to space 126 Gordo, a.k.a. Old Reliable 127 Creating a Bioflight capsule 127 Gordo blazes a trail 127 Ready for lift-off 128 Gordo takes flight 129 Able and Baker 130 The U.S. Navy joins in 130 A monkey is chosen 131 Miss Baker 133 A ride aboard a Jupiter 134 Preparations continue 134 Set for launch 136 "Are the monkeys safe?" 136 Flight results come in 138 Losing Able 138 Miss Baker makes friends 139 Moving on 139 A much-loved monkey 141 References 141
6 The most famous dog in history 143 A "simple" satellite 143 Getting the R-7 to fly 144 Space dogs move centre stage 145 One very busy month 147 Cutting corners on Sputnik 2 147
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Selecting the dog to make history 150 Preparing dogs for space travel 151 Which dog would fly? 153 Flight preparations 155 A sense of excitement 156 Pre-launch 157 Laika makes history 160 Sputnik 2 achieves orbit 160 Critical problems arise 161 The world takes note of the accomplishment 162 Prayers and protests for an unnamed dog 162 Hiding the facts 163 Laika's legacy 164 References 165
Prelude to manned space flight 169 SAM, or the School of Aviation Medicine 169 Devising an escape rocket 170 An animal space programme takes shape 170 A monkey gets a name 171 Sam rides a Little Joe 172 Locating the capsule 172 Tracking Sam 172 An exemplary job 175 The second flight 176 From Sam to Miss Sam 177 One fast, hot and crushing ride 177 Of mice and men 179 A meticulous sham 179 Background history of Project Corona 181 Setting things in place 181 First flight of Discoverer 182 A near-polar orbit and a predicament 183 The mice that soared 184 The first Corona camera 185 A troubled programme 187 Discoverer finally makes headway 188 Making plans for primates 188 Too much monkey business 189 " X " marks the monkey 190 Supervised training begins 190 Conducting tests of the biopack 191 The vanishing programme 195 End of a mission 195
Contents xi Plans on hold 197 A cover story revealed 198 Sally, Amy and Moe 199 Safely recovered 199 Tests and more tests 199 References 200
8 Pioneers in a weightless world 203 A crop of satellite dogs 203 Perfecting the hardware for manned flight 204 Developing Vostok 204 Belka and Strelka orbit the Earth and return 204 Dog watch 205 Publicising space flights 207 The race to put a man in orbit 207 The Nedelin disaster 208 Pchelka and Mushka 209 Siberian weather and self-destruct mechanisms 210 The final hurdles 212 Ivan Ivanovich flies 212 Dress rehearsal for a manned flight 213 The final canine mission 215 The passing of Korolev 216 Twenty-two days in space 217 The French Space Connection 219 Rats and cats and pig-tail monkeys 219 The Veronique rockets 220 Establishing CERMA 220 The first flights 222 A programme begins with Hector 222 Pollux takes to the skies 225 A cat named Felicette 225 Safe recovery 227 Monkeys in the flight line 228 Selecting the candidates 229 Martine lifts off 230 Polish rocketry 234 Biological studies on mice 234 References 236
9 Biting the hand 239 Ed Dittmer and the chimpanzees 239 An "innovative experience" 239 A demonstration flight required 241
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Setting up the chain of responsibility 241 Mercury-Redstone 2 242 Training the candidates 242 Trick or treat on the training machine 243 Chimpanzee subject 65 244 Choosing the best candidates 245 Ham is given the task 249 Into the unknown 249 Ham prepares to make history 249 MR-2 and a primate passenger 251 Delays and more delays 251 Lift-off! 251 Monitoring the flight 252 Heading for a splashdown 253 Recovering the capsule 253 A little shaken but safe 255 Back home again 255 Enough of the glory 255 Death of a true space pioneer 257 A much beloved chimpanzee 258 Understanding Enos 259 Beaten to the punch 259 Defeat, and the road to recovery 260 An American in orbit 260 The space chimps go back into training 260 Enos: man or chimpanzee? 261 One troublesome primate 262 A chimp behaving badly 263 Enos in orbit 264 The reluctant chimponaut 265 Countdown and lift-off 265 A voice from orbit 267 One very irritated space traveller 268 Retrofire, and the journey home 268 Facing the press 268 Paving the way for John Glenn 269 A one-time space traveller 269 Results of the chimpanzee flights 269 Goliath and Scatback 270 The mighty Atlas rocket 270 A rocket to carry men into space 271 Test flights 271 Overcoming a bad reputation 272 The sad saga of Goliath 272 Victim of a failure 272
Contents xiii A monkey called Scatback 273 Lost at sea 273 Further failures 274 References 275
10 Cosmos/Bion: The age of the biosatellites 277 Dogs spend 22 days in space 277 The effects of space flight 278 Studying the biomedical problems of space flight 279 Life sciences comes to Ames Research Center 279 NASA'S biosatellites 280 Space biology gets more scientific 280 The first primate biosatellite 282 Cold War collaboration 284 American participation in Cosmos/Bion 285 Experiments on Cosmos/Bion 782 287 Cosmos 782 findings 289 Cosmos 936 and 1129 290 Novel experiments on rats 290 Cosmos continues despite Cold War 292 Monkeys fly on Cosmos 293 Politics and biosatellites in the 1990s 297 The final Bion mission 299 Animal rights groups pressure NASA 299 Preparing monkeys for Bion 11 300 The tragedy of Bion 11 301 The impact of Bion 302 References 303
11 End of an era 307 China looks to the future 307 The T-7A rocket 308 Mission experiments 309 Choosing the canine candidates 310 Project Gemini 311 Early biological experiments 311 Tortoises in a race to the moon 312 The Zond programme 312 Trouble on the outbound journey 313 Zond splashes down 313 More tortoises to the moon 315 The Frog Otolith Experiment 315 Preparation for flight 317
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Of rockets and pocket mice 318 Tiny space travellers 319 Bound for the moon 320 More mice on Skylab. . . 321 Weaving webs in space 323 Studying spiders 324 First fish to fly 324 Creating a tangled web 324 Return to Earth 326 "Surplus to Requirements" 326 Coulston takes over 328 A new animal facility 329 Awareness and protests grow 330 Preventable losses 331 Formal charges laid 331 An "arbitrary and capricious" decision 333 End of an anthropoid era 334 References 335
12 Shuttling into space 337 The era of the Space Shuttle 337 Creating suitable habitats 337 Solving the problems 338 Shuttle life science begins 339 Some serious monkey business 341 Spacelab experiments 342 The no-name monkeys 343 Tragedy, and a lengthy hiatus 344 Back to business again 344 Rats and the meaning of life 345 One giant leap for amphibians 345 The very reluctant astronaut 346 Froggie he did ride 346 Some surprising developments 347 Unexpected behaviour 347 Spacelab and life sciences 347 The first Spacelab life sciences mission 348 A question of muscular atrophy 348 Spacelab flies again 349 Rodents lead the way in research 351 Astronauts and AstroNewts 351 Tanks, tests and transparent fish 352 Flying fish and hornworms 354
Contents xv STS-90 Neurolab 354 A veritable raft of experiments 354 Spacelab, for the final time 355 Rats in hiding 357 Weightlessness and the development of muscles 358 Spacemen and specimens 358 A dwindling population 359 Post-flight solutions 360 Flightless birds and avian experiments 360 The Russian quail egg story 361 Beatles in orbit? 362 China resumes biological flights 363 Shenzhou and state secrecy 363 Talking of taikonauts 364 A second Shenzhou 364 A programme shrouded in mystery 365 Tragedy strikes again 366 Sole survivors 366 Not a place for stressed-out scorpions 367 Shenzhou flights continue 368 References 370 13 Epilogue 373 Appendix A U.S. monkey research flights 375 Appendix B Soviet space dog programme 379 Appendix C U.S. biological rocket flights, 1946-1960 383 Appendix D French biological rocket flights, 1961-1967 387 Appendix E Chinese T-7 sounding rocket launches 389 Appendix F Bion research flights 391 Appendix G Space shuttle life science orbital flights 393 Index 397
