Félicette: THE INSIDE STORY OF A SPACE CAT
All About Space|Issue 119
What happened when a feline was blasted off into space?
Stuart Atkinson
Félicette: THE INSIDE STORY OF A SPACE CAT

Everyone knows the story of Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth. Photos of her feature in every book written about space, and although some people are still unaware of the awful truth of how she died in orbit at the end of her flight, almost everyone knows her name and what she did. However, the same can’t be said of Félicette, the first – and so far only – cat to fly in space.

Why is Félicette forgotten when Laika is so loved? Perhaps because she flew aboard a small French rocket, not one of the powerful boosters used by the competing Superpowers. Maybe it’s because her flight lasted 15 minutes, only carrying her to the edge of space on a suborbital ‘hop’?

Félicette was one of a group of 14 cats, all-female, ‘acquired’ by French space scientists. Having seen the successful animal flights of the US and Russia, France – which had ambitions to launch its own astronauts – decided to stage a series of missions of their own, but using cats instead of dogs or monkeys.

Before they could begin their training the cats – which were given numbers instead of names to prevent the scientists from becoming attached to them – were fitted with electrodes to enable the scientists to study and record their brain activity and connect them to monitoring equipment. If that sounds horrendous, it is, and one photo taken during the cats’ training really does show the cold contrast between how human and animal astronauts were treated.

This story is from the Issue 119 edition of All About Space.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the Issue 119 edition of All About Space.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM ALL ABOUT SPACEView All
MYSTERIES OF THE UNI WHERE ARE ALL THE SPIRAL GALAXIES?
All About Space UK

MYSTERIES OF THE UNI WHERE ARE ALL THE SPIRAL GALAXIES?

There are far fewer spiral galaxies than elliptical ones in the Supergalactic Plane, and scientists are keen to discover why

time-read
7 mins  |
Issue 161
ZOMBIE STARS
All About Space UK

ZOMBIE STARS

+10 OTHER TERRIFYING SPACE OBJECTS

time-read
8 mins  |
Issue 161
HOW TO BEAT LIGHT POLLUTION
All About Space UK

HOW TO BEAT LIGHT POLLUTION

Thought it was impossible to observe the wonders of the night sky from towns and cities? Think again. Follow our tips and tricks on successfully observing through sky glow

time-read
2 mins  |
Issue 161
15 STUNNING STAR CLUSTERS
All About Space UK

15 STUNNING STAR CLUSTERS

These beautiful stellar groupings are spattered across the cosmos

time-read
8 mins  |
Issue 161
Eileen Collins "It was a difficult mission...we were the first to see Mir"
All About Space UK

Eileen Collins "It was a difficult mission...we were the first to see Mir"

Having served as both the first female pilot and first female commander of NASA's Space Shuttle, Collins boosted the involvement of women in space exploration to a whole new level

time-read
9 mins  |
Issue 161
MARS LEAKS FASTER WHEN IT'S CLOSER TO THE SUN
All About Space UK

MARS LEAKS FASTER WHEN IT'S CLOSER TO THE SUN

The Red Planet has lost enough water to space to form a global ocean hundreds of kilometres deep

time-read
2 mins  |
Issue 161
FUTURE TECH KANKOH-MARU
All About Space UK

FUTURE TECH KANKOH-MARU

This ambitious reusable spacecraft will be capable of taking 50 people to and from orbit

time-read
2 mins  |
Issue 161
THE FINAL FRONTIER
All About Space UK

THE FINAL FRONTIER

Beyond the reach of the Sun is a fascinating region of the cosmos that were only just beginning to explore

time-read
8 mins  |
Issue 161
A long-lost moon could explain Mars' weird shape and extreme terrain
All About Space UK

A long-lost moon could explain Mars' weird shape and extreme terrain

A long-lost moon could explain why Mars is so different from the other rocky planets in the Solar System. Today Mars has two tiny moons.

time-read
2 mins  |
Issue 161
A sprinkling of cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth
All About Space UK

A sprinkling of cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth

Cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth. New findings challenge a widely held assumption that this wasn't a plausible explanation.

time-read
3 mins  |
Issue 161