Happy Memorial Day!
A few months back, my husband and I took a trip down to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One of the exhibits told about two rhesus monkeys, Abel and Baker, who were the first animals to successfully be recovered after a launch into space.
I knew when I saw this exhibit that I was going to write about them in the Pets Blog, but I decided to save it for May 28, because it was on May 28, 1959 when they made their historical journey. (An altitude of 300 miles for a distance of 1,500 miles.) I had no idea at the time that May 28 would happen to fall on Memorial Day this year too, which makes my tribute even more fitting!
I have mixed feelings about monkeys being used in experimental situations. (Well, that goes for any animal really.) The exhibit alluded to the fact that other monkeys before them had died during other launches. They didn’t say how many, which at the time I thought was a good thing. (It made me sad to think of all the innocent monkeys who probably didn’t understand what was happening to them. And of course my imagination kicked in with thinking of how they might have suffered awful deaths –suffocation, pure terror, exploding with the rockets, et cetera.)
In retrospect, however, I wish that along with the replica Jupiter nose cone that Abel and Baker made their trip in that the other monkeys were listed by name. Like how they list the names of fallen soldiers on memorial walls and plaques. Because that’s what they really are. Fallen soldiers who gave their lives to benefit us humans.
Abel and Baker lucked out. They benefited from lessons learned during previous failed missions and the improved designs scientists engineered to create a rocket that could sustain life while venturing into space and back again to Earth. They might not have had any part in designing that rocket, but make no mistake they were very much a part of the effort that paved the way for man “to go where no man had gone before.”
So today, in addition to saluting our troops, honoring the men and women who have served over the years, and all those who have fallen in the line of duty, I also want to remember all of the animals who have served our country too. The ones who were part of the failed missions, as well as those, like Abel and Baker, who were the heroes of successful ones.
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