63 Years Ago, A Cat Named Felicette Became The First Feline In Space

Sixty-three years ago, on October 18, 1963, a small black-and-white cat named Felicette made history by becoming the first and only feline to travel into space and return safely, People magazine reported. The historic journey lasted for around 13 minutes. The mission was carried out when astronauts in the US and Soviet Union were busy launching dogs and monkeys to analyse the conditions in outer space and explore if humans could survive trips beyond the edge of Earth's atmosphere. But the French decided to go with a cat.

Before her historic journey, the cat was simply known by her laboratory designation, C341. But according to an old report by The Guardian, when the cat returned safely to Earth, the press decided to give her a name. They chose Felix, only to find that C341 was a female. Then they picked the name Felicette, which was slightly similar to Felix.

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For the experiment, Felicette was loaded into the nose cone of a Veronique rocket. The sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of 154 km and lasted a total of 13 minutes in space.

During the rapid ascent, she experienced intense gravitational forces before the nose cone separated, sending her about 98 miles (roughly 157 kilometres) high into the atmosphere. For about five minutes, she floated in microgravity, experiencing weightlessness before the capsule began its turbulent return to Earth.

According to Space.com, Felicette survived spaceflight, but she was euthanised two months after as the scientists wanted to study her brain.

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"In the 60s, scientists and engineers were primarily concerned about how dangerous it might be for a human to be in a capsule in outer space, and most animal space flights were undertaken to see if they suffered or their lives were threatened by the weightlessness or increased radiation or other effects they might experience up there," astronomer Jake Foster at the Royal Observatory Greenwich said, as quoted by The Guardian's old report.

"The fact that they did not succumb paved the way for humans to begin journeys into space."

Decades later, her unique contribution to science was officially recognised when a bronze statue was unveiled in her honour, cementing her place in the history books as space exploration's ultimate pioneer cat.