On November 3, 1957, Laika was sent on a one-way trip into orbit with a limited food and air supply. That title belongs to the Soviet Union’s canine cosmonaut named Laika, who rode onboard Sputnik 2. Enos’ mission served as the last before John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth in February 1962.Įven though Enos made history as the first chimp to safely orbit Earth, he wasn’t the first creature to fly that high. Fortunately, Enos completed all four tasks and splashed down safely. The chimp’s flight plan originally consisted of three orbits around Earth, but had to be limited to two due to a thruster failure. The panel put Enos through a cycle of four different tasks, some of which included either a banana-flavored snack, or a mild shock to the foot. It wouldn’t be until November 29, 1961, when Enos the chimp made his trip around Earth onboard a Mercury Atlas 5 rocket.īefore Enos could fly, he had to undergo more than 1,200 hours of training to use a psychomotor equipment panel that mimicked tasks meant for human flight control operations. The Soviets and the Americans launched dozens of missions into the early part of the decade. So, in the early 1960s, NASA sent dozens of animals into space to make sure humans could survive prolonged periods of weightlessness. had set its sights on the moon, but strapping yourself to a rocket wasn’t exactly as common as it is today. Sixty years ago this week, humanity sent its bravest into Earth’s orbit-a chimpanzee named Enos.
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