On May 22, 1952, two Philippine monkeys were sealed in the nose cone of a rocket in the New Mexico desert. The flight was conducted by the U.S. Air Force, and NASA's official history office now records that the pair, known as Patricia and Mike, were blasted off aboard an Aerobee rocket from Holloman Air Force Base. They went up to a height of 36 miles, traveling at a speed of 2,000 miles per hour. It may seem strange, but the flight had a real purpose. Scientists wanted to see how the body deals with a sudden, hard push of speed and if the answer changes depending on how the body is positioned.
Why animals went to space before people
