This is the story of the kidnapping and sacrifice of Félicette, whose only misfortune was having a calm nature. Little is said about her, even though her life was surprisingly fundamental to the first steps on the Moon.
Félicette was young and free, a Parisian who lived without knowing that everything was about to change.
The abduction and the space mission
It was 1963 when Félicette was kidnapped by scientists from the French government’s National Center for Space Studies and forced to participate in the new space project, whose mission was to send her into space to find out if she would survive.
We find ourselves in the midst of the space race in which world powers were busy trying to carry out missions beyond Planet Earth.
This data is important to understand how much governments were willing to do to obtain a record.
Along with her, 13 others were subjected to tests, experiments and very intense training against their will: only one of them would be chosen for the mission.
Training for space expedition
Every day, Félicette faced physical and mental tests, aimed at accustoming her to the conditions of space: she was confined in narrow spaces in which she was unable to move, put under stress with noises that she would hear during the expedition and to test her ability to self-control and she was placed in a centrifuge to prepare her body for the rocket’s acceleration: throughout all of this, her brain was monitored via electrodes that had been surgically implanted in her brain.
Among the 14 non-volunteers, Félicette was chosen for the mission thanks, or because, depending on your point of view, to her calm nature.
Launch day and the hope of surviving
On October 18, 1963, everything was ready for the expedition, although no one knew how it would go: would Félicette survive?
It was launched aboard the Véronique AG1 rocket from the Hammaguir space center, Algeria.
The whole world knew her story and remained in suspense while, during the approximately 13 minutes of the mission, Félicette experienced first-hand 9.5g of acceleration, 5 minutes without gravity in space at an altitude of 157 km and landing with a parachute.
Félicette managed to survive, the scientists recovered her enthusiastically for the result obtained.
But it was not yet time for Félicette to be free again and she was subjected to tests and experiments for another two months and, the final sacrifice, to euthanasia by removing the electrodes from her brain, the data of which were analyzed by scientists.
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The true story of Félicette and the cat in space
Félicette’s abduction and sacrifice allowed scientists to better understand the effects of space on the body and brain and to take That small step for man, and that big step for humanity of the first moon landing.
Félicette’s is a story of sacrifice, which is rarely talked about.
However, there is one thing that I deliberately omitted to tell you, but which I am about to tell you: Félicette was a cat. And she is remembered as the first and only cat to fly in space.
A stray cat who lived on the streets of Paris and who became a symbol of French space missions.
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The sad story of Félicette, the cat launched into space and transformed into a laboratory guinea pig upon her return
