1959: Monkeys survive space flight
Able, a female rhesus monkey, and Miss Baker, a female squirrel monkey, have become the first primates to survive a space flight.
The flight reached speeds of up to 10,000 miles per hour and lasted 15 minutes. The pair were weightless for nine minutes, all the while being monitored for changes in heartbeat, muscular reaction, body temperature and rate of breathing.
Able later died from the effects of anaesthesia given for the removal of electrodes implanted for the mission. Miss Baker survived a similar operation and lived until 1984.
Originally broadcast on 28 May, 1959.