In 1958 the US military loaded a monkey named Gordo onto a rocket (a modified medium range ballistic missile, in fact) and fired him into space. Monkey telemetry revealed that Gordo was alive and well upon reentry but at a crucial moment the floation device attached to Gordo’s capsule failed and so he sank to the bottom of the ocean. Somewhat ignominiously the military promptly decided not to publicize the experiment and never to mention Gordo ever again.

In 1959 they tried again, this time with Peruvian squirrel monkeys called “Baker” (supplied and trained by the US Navy) and “Able” (supplied by the Army).

Baker was female, two years old – that’s around eight in monkey years – and hand picked for the mission by Donald Stullken in the Bioastronautics team at the US Naval School of Aviation Medicine. Six hours before launch she was loaded into a tiny oxygenated, temperature controlled capsule then stuffed into the nosecone of a Jupiter missile.

At lift-off she was observed to be ‘mildly startled’ but was otherwise calm throughout her flight, which involved speeds 10,000 mph, nine minutes of weightlessness and, at points, 38 g.

This time the floatation device worked as expected. Both Able and Baker were rescued quickly and immediately rewarded with a banana and a cracker. Baker ate hers then rolled over and took a nap.

An operation to remove the monitoring electrodes from Able ended badly and she died four days after landing, leaving Baker the only surviving American space monkey. Press interest exploded and she briefly became world famous, appearing on the cover of LIFE as the first monkey to survive being shot into space (strictly speaking untrue, as Gordo and Able both died of complicating factors once they were back on Earth).

“Such action as this falls within the category of scientific devilry rather than scientific research … in the name of humanity we beg of you to drop these vile experiments.” – Letter from the League Against Cruel Sports to the American Embassy in London

Baker eventually retired to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, home to Space Camp. She has been through two staged monkey marriage ceremonies, once in 1962 with a monkey named Big George and again when Big George died, to Norman. Her birthday was celebrated each year at the Space & Rocket center, often with television crews and local celebrities in attendance.

Baker died in 1984 of kidney failure. She was the oldest squirrel monkey ever recorded.

It has become a tradition at Space Camp for kids to leave bananas on her grave in the car park at the entrance to the Rocket Center.

Able’s body was preserved and is now on display at the National Air and Space museum in Washington D.C.

Brave space monkeys, we salute you.