STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.3, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.5, RH.6-8.7, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.3, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.5, RI.6-8.6, RI.6-8.7

NCSS: Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Individuals, Groups, and Institutions • Science, Technology, and Society

HISTORY

Pic From the Past | May 30, 1959

What’s Going on Here?

This photo tells a story from an important period in American history. Can you use clues from the image to figure it out?

Alamy Stock Photo

Hints:

Underwood Archives/UIG /Bridgeman Images

This squirrel monkey achieved a major first for the U.S.

1. In the late 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were competing to be the first nation to send humans into space. This period is known as the Space Race

2. Monkeys and humans share several biological traits. For instance, their bodies respond to stress and some environmental changes in similar ways

3. Reporters and photographers were eager for news about the latest milestones in the Space Race

Keep reading to get the full story behind this photo!

The Story Behind the Photo

Monkeys in space? Sounds bananasbut it happened! This photo shows pioneering animal astronauts Miss Able (large monkey on table) and Miss Baker (small monkey on table) at a NASA press conference in Pensacola, Florida, on May 30, 1959. The furry duo was meeting news reporters and photographers after making history as the first primates to survive spaceflight. The monkeys accomplished this feat two years before the first human reached space

The journey taken by Able, a 7-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a 1-pound squirrel monkey, helped scientists study the effects of space travel on living creatures. On May 28, 1959, the pair blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Jupiter AM-18 rocket. The craft reached speeds of 10,000 miles per hour as it shot about 300 miles into the air. Able and Baker experienced nine minutes of weightlessness before reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Then the special capsule carrying the twosome parachuted into the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Navy found the space monkeys unharmedand ready to enjoy some peanuts

The monkeys had traveled 1,700 miles in 15 minutes. The groundbreaking trip turned Able and Baker into celebrities. They made the cover of Life magazinethough reports at the time describe Able as shy and Baker asmore interested in food than fame.” 

Able died during a medical procedure soon after returning to Earth. But Baker delighted fans visiting the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, until her death in 1984. Today both monkeys are remembered for helping pave the way for human space exploration

—Mary Kate Frank

Text-to-Speech