First and Only Cat in Space !! What Happened to Felicette in Space #space #spacecat
#Video Chapters
00:00 Disclaimer
00:12 Intro to Topic
02:14 Background : What made French Scientists to think of Cats!
04:14 Mission Kitty: To the Stars and Back!
07:05 Results and Aftermath!
09:40 Outro
Félicette (French pronunciation: [felisɛt]) was a stray Parisian cat who is the only cat to have been launched into space. She was launched on 18 October 1963 as part of the French space program. Félicette was one of 14 female cats trained for spaceflight. The cats had electrodes implanted onto their skulls so their neurological activity could be monitored throughout the flight. Electrical impulses were applied to the brain and a leg during the flight to stimulate responses. The capsule was recovered 13 minutes after the rocket was ignited. Most of the data from the mission were of good quality, and Félicette survived the flight but was euthanized two months later for the examination of her brain.
Félicette had the designation of C 341 before the flight, and after the flight the media gave her the name Félix, after Félix the Cat. Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA) modified this to the feminine Félicette and adopted it as her official name. She has been commemorated on postage stamps around the world and a statue with her likeness is on display at the International Space University. France's feline biological rocket payloads were preceded by rats and followed by monkeys.
On the 14th of June 1949, a groundbreaking U.S. suborbital flight marked the historic journey of the first mammal in space—Albert II, a Rhesus monkey. Later, on the 3rd of November 1957, the Soviet Union achieved another milestone by launching Laika, a stray dog discovered on the streets of Moscow, into space aboard Sputnik 2. Though Laika tragically perished in space, she etched her place in history as the first animal to orbit the Earth.
Felicette was a normal street cat purchased by France govt for their space mission. Electrodes were attached directly to her brain to study neurological activity during flight. She passed all the required tests for flight.
So they decided to launch her into space. In 1963, France launched Felicette into space. Her flight reached 157 kilometers height and she became first cat to enter space.

In the quest for space exploration, Brazilian Army colonel Manuel dos Santos Lage ambitiously planned to launch a cat named Flamengo aboard the Félix I rocket on the 1st of January 1959. However, this pioneering flight was canceled due to ethical concerns surrounding the use of a cat in such endeavors.
Fast forward to the 31st of January 1961, a pivotal moment unfolded as part of Project Mercury when the chimpanzee named Ham embarked on a suborbital flight, becoming the first hominid to journey into space. Continuing this trajectory, on the 29th of November 1961, Enos, another chimpanzee, soared into space, becoming the second chimpanzee