The fundamentals of astronomy for beginners EXPLAINER

Félicette, the cat that flew to space

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Stuart Atkinson tells the story of the only feline to have survived spaceflight

The chances are, if you saw a crossword clue 'Animal that flew into space (3)', you'd think of Laika and write, "Dog". And it might be right, but there's another correct answer. This month is the 59th anniversary of a small, black and white cat called Félicette travelling where no feline had gone before or has gone since. But why is Félicette overlooked when Laika is so loved? Perhaps because her rocket looked like a firework compared to Laika's powerful booster. Or maybe it's because she only flew to the edge of space, on the same kind of suborbital flight that billionaires now pay a fortune for.

Félicette's story began in 1961 when, following the superpowers' successful animal flights, France decided to stage a series of missions of its own, using cats instead of dogs or monkeys, hoping to collect data that would allow them to launch their own astronauts later.

Fourteen female cats were subsequently acquired by French CERMA space scientists. To prevent the scientists from becoming attached to them, the cats were given numbers instead of names. They were also fitted with electrodes to record their brain activity.