title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was initially directed by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and followed projects of a similar nature such as Project Sign established in 1947, and Project Grudge in 1948. Project Blue Book had two goals, namely, to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security, and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Thousands of UFO reports were collected, analyzed, and filed. As a result of the "Condon Report", which concluded that the study of UFOs was unlikely to yield major scientific discoveries, and a review of the report by the National Academy of Sciences, Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. The Air Force supplies the following summary of its investigations:


title: Project Blue Book

text: By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports, and concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena (clouds, stars, etc.) or conventional aircraft. According to the National Reconnaissance Office a number of the reports could be explained by flights of the formerly secret reconnaissance planes U-2 and A-12. 701 reports were classified as unexplained, even after stringent analysis. The UFO reports were archived and are available under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information of all witnesses have been redacted.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Public USAF UFO studies were first initiated under Project Sign at the end of 1947, following many widely publicized UFO reports (see Kenneth Arnold). Project Sign was initiated specifically at the request of General Nathan Twining, chief of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wright-Patterson was also to be the home of Project Sign and all subsequent official USAF public investigations.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Sign was officially inconclusive regarding the cause of the sightings. However, according to US Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt (the first director of Project Blue Book), Sign's initial intelligence estimate (the so-called Estimate of the Situation) written in the late summer of 1948, concluded that the flying saucers were real craft, were not made by either the Soviet Union or United States, and were likely extraterrestrial in origin. (See also extraterrestrial hypothesis.) This was subsequently rejected by Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, citing a lack of physical proof. Vandenberg subsequently dismantled Project Sign.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Sign was succeeded at the end of 1948 by Project Grudge, which was criticized as having a debunking mandate. Ruppelt referred to the era of Project Grudge as the "dark ages" of early USAF UFO investigation. Grudge concluded that all UFOs were natural phenomena or other misinterpretations, although it also stated that 23 percent of the reports could not be explained.


title: Project Blue Book

text: According to Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, by the end of 1951, several high-ranking, very influential USAF generals were so dissatisfied with the state of Air Force UFO investigations that they dismantled Project Grudge and replaced it with Project Blue Book in March 1952. One of these men was Gen. Charles P. Cabell. Another important change came when General William Garland joined Cabell's staff; Garland thought the UFO question deserved serious scrutiny because he had witnessed a UFO.


title: Project Blue Book

text: The new name, Project Blue Book, was selected to refer to the blue booklets used for testing at some colleges and universities. The name was inspired, said Ruppelt, by the close attention that high-ranking officers were giving the new project; it felt as if the study of UFOs was as important as a college final exam. Blue Book was also upgraded in status from Project Grudge, with the creation of the Aerial Phenomenon Branch.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Ruppelt was the first head of the project. He was an experienced airman, having been decorated for his efforts with the Army Air Corps during World War II, and having afterward earned an aeronautics degree. He officially coined the term "Unidentified Flying Object", to replace the many terms ("flying saucer", "flying disk" and so on) the military had previously used; Ruppelt thought that "unidentified flying object" was a more neutral and accurate term. Ruppelt resigned from the Air Force some years later and wrote the book "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects", which described the study of UFOs by the United States Air Force from 1947 to 1955. American scientist Michael D. Swords wrote that "Ruppelt would lead the last genuine effort to analyze UFOs".


title: Project Blue Book

text: Ruppelt implemented a number of changes: He streamlined the manner in which UFOs were reported to (and by) military officials, partly in hopes of alleviating the stigma and ridicule associated with UFO witnesses. Ruppelt also ordered the development of a standard questionnaire for UFO witnesses, hoping to uncover data that could be subject to statistical analysis. He commissioned the Battelle Memorial Institute to create the questionnaire and computerize the data. Using case reports and the computerized data, Battelle then conducted a massive scientific and statistical study of all Air Force UFO cases, completed in 1954 and known as "Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14" (see summary below).


title: Project Blue Book

text: Knowing that factionalism had harmed the progress of Project Sign, Ruppelt did his best to avoid the kinds of open-ended speculation that had led to Sign's personnel being split among advocates and critics of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. As Michael Hall writes, "Ruppelt not only took the job seriously but expected his staff to do so as well. If anyone under him either became too skeptical or too convinced of one particular theory, they soon found themselves off the project." In his book, Ruppelt reported that he fired three personnel very early in the project because they were either "too pro" or "too con" one hypothesis or another. Ruppelt sought the advice of many scientists and experts, and issued regular press releases (along with classified monthly reports for military intelligence).


title: Project Blue Book

text: Each U.S. Air Force Base had a Blue Book officer to collect UFO reports and forward them to Ruppelt. During most of Ruppelt's tenure, he and his team were authorized to interview any and all military personnel who witnessed UFOs and were not required to follow the chain of command. This unprecedented authority underlined the seriousness of Blue Book's investigation.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Under Ruppelt's direction, Blue Book investigated a number of well-known UFO cases, including the so-called Lubbock Lights, and a widely publicized 1952 radar/visual case over Washington D.C. According to Jacques Vallee, Ruppelt started the trend, largely followed by later Blue Book investigations, of not giving serious consideration to numerous reports of UFO landings and/or interaction with purported UFO occupants.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the scientific consultant of the project. He had been with Projects Sign and Grudge. He worked for the project up to its termination and initially created the categorization which has been extended and is known today as Close encounters. He was a pronounced skeptic when he started, but said that his feelings changed to a more wavering skepticism during the research, after encountering a minority of UFO reports he thought were unexplainable.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Ruppelt left Blue Book in February 1953 for a temporary reassignment. He returned a few months later to find his staff reduced from more than ten, to two subordinates. Frustrated, Ruppelt suggested that an Air Defense Command unit (the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron) be charged with UFO investigations.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In July 1952, after a build-up of hundreds of sightings over the previous few months, a series of radar detections coincident with visual sightings were observed near the National Airport in Washington, D.C. (see 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident).


title: Project Blue Book

text: After much publicity, these sightings led the Central Intelligence Agency to establish a panel of scientists headed by Dr. H. P. Robertson, a physicist of the California Institute of Technology, which included various physicists, meteorologists, and engineers, and one astronomer (Hynek). The Robertson Panel first met on January 14, 1953 in order to formulate a response to the overwhelming public interest in UFOs.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Ruppelt, Hynek, and others presented the best evidence, including movie footage, that had been collected by Blue Book. After spending 12 hours reviewing 6 years of data, the Robertson Panel concluded that most UFO reports had prosaic explanations and that all could be explained with further investigation, which they deemed not worth the effort.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In their final report, they stressed that low-grade, unverifiable UFO reports were overloading intelligence channels, with the risk of missing a genuine conventional threat to the U.S. Therefore, they recommended the Air Force de-emphasize the subject of UFOs and embark on a debunking campaign to lessen public interest. They suggested debunkery through the mass media, including Walt Disney Productions, and using psychologists, astronomers, and celebrities to ridicule the phenomenon and put forward prosaic explanations. Furthermore, civilian UFO groups "should be watched because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking ... The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind."


title: Project Blue Book

text: It is the conclusion of many researchers that the Robertson Panel was recommending controlling public opinion through a program of official propaganda and spying. They also believe these recommendations helped shape Air Force policy regarding UFO study not only immediately afterward, but also into the present day. There is evidence that the Panel's recommendations were being carried out at least two decades after its conclusions were issued (see the main article for details and citations).


title: Project Blue Book

text: In December 1953, Joint Army-Navy-Air Force Regulation number 146 made it a crime for military personnel to discuss classified UFO reports with unauthorized persons. Violators faced up to two years in prison and/or fines of up to $10,000.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In his book (see external links) Ruppelt described the demoralization of the Blue Book staff and the stripping of their investigative duties following the Robertson Panel jurisdiction.


title: Project Blue Book

text: As an immediate consequence of the Robertson Panel recommendations, in February 1953, the Air Force issued Regulation 200-2, ordering air base officers to publicly discuss UFO incidents only if they were judged to have been solved, and to classify all the unsolved cases to keep them out of the public eye.


title: Project Blue Book

text: The same month, investigative duties started to be taken on by the newly formed 4602nd Air Intelligence Squadron (AISS) of the Air Defense Command. The 4602nd AISS was assigned the task of investigating only the most important UFO cases with intelligence or national security implications. These cases were deliberately siphoned away from Blue Book, leaving Blue Book to deal with the more trivial reports.


title: Project Blue Book

text: General Nathan Twining, who started Project Sign in 1947, was now Air Force Chief of Staff. In August 1954, he was to further codify the responsibilities of the 4602nd AISS by issuing an updated Air Force Regulation 200-2. In addition, UFOs (called "UFOBs") were defined as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Investigation of UFOs was stated to be for the purposes of national security and to ascertain "technical aspects." AFR 200-2 again stated that Blue Book could discuss UFO cases with the media only if they were regarded as having a conventional explanation. If they were unidentified, the media was to be told only that the situation was being analyzed. Blue Book was also ordered to reduce the number of unidentified to a minimum.


title: Project Blue Book

text: All this work was done secretly. The public face of Blue Book continued to be the official Air Force investigation of UFOs, but the reality was it had essentially been reduced to doing very few serious investigations and had become almost solely a public relations outfit with a debunking mandate. To cite one example, by the end of 1956, the number of cases listed as unsolved had dipped to barely 0.4 percent, from 20 to 30% only a few years earlier.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Eventually, Ruppelt requested reassignment; at his departure in August 1953, his staff had been reduced from more than ten (precise numbers of personnel varied) to just two subordinates and himself. His temporary replacement was a noncommissioned officer. Most who succeeded him as Blue Book director exhibited either apathy or outright hostility to the subject of UFOs or were hampered by a lack of funding and official support.


title: Project Blue Book

text: UFO investigators often regard Ruppelt's brief tenure at Blue Book as the high-water mark of public Air Force investigations of UFOs, when UFO investigations were treated seriously and had support at high levels. Thereafter, Project Blue Book descended into a new "Dark Ages" from which many UFO investigators argue it never emerged. However, Ruppelt later came to embrace the Blue Book perspective that there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs; he even labeled the subject a "Space Age Myth."


title: Project Blue Book

text: In March 1954, Captain Charles Hardin was appointed the head of Blue Book; however, the 4602nd conducted most UFO investigations, and Hardin did not object. Ruppelt wrote that Hardin "thinks that anyone who is even interested [in UFOs] is crazy. They bore him."


title: Project Blue Book

text: In 1955, the Air Force decided that the goal of Blue Book should not be to investigate UFO reports but to minimize the number of unidentified UFO reports. By late 1956, the number of unidentified sightings had dropped from the 20–25% of the Ruppelt era to less than 1%.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Captain George T. Gregory took over as Blue Book's director in 1956. Clark writes that Gregory led Blue Book "in an even firmer anti-UFO direction than the apathetic Hardin." The 4602nd was dissolved, and the 1066th Air Intelligence Service Squadron was charged with UFO investigations.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In fact, there was actually little or no investigation of UFO reports; a revised AFR 200-2 issued during Gregory's tenure emphasized that unexplained UFO reports must be reduced to a minimum.


title: Project Blue Book

text: One way that Gregory reduced the number of unexplained UFOs was by simple reclassification. "Possible cases" became "probable", and "probable" cases were upgraded to certainties. By this logic, a "possible" comet became a "probable" comet, while a probable comet was flatly declared to have been a misidentified comet. Similarly, if a witness reported an observation of an unusual balloon-"like" object, Blue Book usually classified it as a balloon, with no research and qualification. These procedures became standard for most of Blue Book's later investigations; see Hynek's comments below.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Lt. Col. Robert J. Friend was appointed the head of Blue Book in 1958. Friend made some attempts to reverse the direction Blue Book had taken since 1954. Clark writes that "Friend's efforts to upgrade the files and catalog sightings according to various observed statistics were frustrated by a lack of funding and assistance."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Heartened by Friend's efforts, Hynek organized the first of several meetings between Blue Book staffers and ATIC personnel in 1959. Hynek suggested that some older UFO reports should be reevaluated, with the ostensible aim of moving them from the "unknown" to the "identified" category. Hynek's plans came to naught.


title: Project Blue Book

text: During Friend's tenure, ATIC contemplated passing the oversight of Blue Book to another Air Force agency, but neither the Air Research and Development Center nor the Office of Information for the Secretary of the Air Force was interested.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In 1960, there were U.S. Congressional hearings regarding UFOs. Civilian UFO research group NICAP had publicly charged Blue Book with covering up UFO evidence and had also acquired a few allies in the U.S. Congress. Blue Book was investigated by the Congress and the CIA, with critics—most notably the civilian UFO group NICAP asserting that Blue Book was lacking as a scientific study. In response, ATIC added personnel (increasing the total personnel to three military personnel, plus civilian secretaries) and increased Blue Book's budget. This seemed to mollify some of Blue Book's critics, but it was only temporary. A few years later (see below), the criticism would be even louder.


title: Project Blue Book

text: By the time he was transferred from Blue Book in 1963, Friend thought that Blue Book was effectively useless and ought to be dissolved, even if it caused an outcry amongst the public.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Major Hector Quintanilla took over as Blue Book's leader in August 1963. He largely continued the debunking efforts, and it was under his direction that Blue Book received some of its sharpest criticism. UFO researcher Jerome Clark goes so far as to write that, by this time, Blue Book had "lost all credibility."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Physicist and UFO researcher Dr. James E. McDonald once flatly declared that Quintanilla was "not competent" from either a scientific or an investigative perspective, although he also stressed that Quintanilla "shouldn't be held accountable for it," as he was chosen for his position by a superior officer, and was following orders in directing Blue Book.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Blue Book's explanations of UFO reports were not universally accepted, however, and critics—including some scientists—suggested that Project Blue Book performed questionable research or, worse, was perpetrating cover up. This criticism grew especially strong and widespread in the 1960s.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Take, for example, the many mostly nighttime UFO reports from the midwestern and southeastern United States in the summer of 1965: Witnesses in Texas reported "multicolored lights" and large aerial objects shaped like eggs or diamonds. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that Tinker Air Force Base (near Oklahoma City) had tracked up to four UFOs simultaneously, and that several of them had descended very rapidly: from about 22000 feet to about 4000 feet in just a few seconds, an action well beyond the capabilities of conventional aircraft of the era. John Shockley, a meteorologist from Wichita, Kansas, reported that, using the state Weather Bureau radar, he tracked a number of odd aerial objects flying at altitudes between about 6000 and 9000 feet. These and other reports received wide publicity.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book officially determined the witnesses had mistaken Jupiter or bright stars (such as Rigel or Betelgeuse) for something else.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Blue Book's explanation was widely criticized as inaccurate. Robert Riser, director of the Oklahoma Science and Art Foundation Planetarium offered a strongly worded rebuke of Project Blue Book that was widely circulated: "That is as far from the truth as you can get. These stars and planets are on the opposite side of the earth from Oklahoma City at this time of year. The Air Force must have had its star finder upside-down during August."


title: Project Blue Book

text: A newspaper editorial from the "Richmond News Leader" opined that "Attempts to dismiss the reported sightings under the rationale as exhibited by Project Bluebook won't solve the mystery ... and serve only to heighten the suspicion that there's something out there that the air force doesn't want us to know about", while a Wichita-based UPI reporter noted that "Ordinary radar does not pick up planets and stars."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Another case that Blue Book's critics seized upon was the so-called Portage County UFO Chase, which began at about 5.00 am, near Ravenna, Ohio on April 17, 1966. Police officers Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff spotted what they described as a disc-shaped, silvery object with a bright light emanating from its underside, at about 1000 feet in altitude. They began following the object (which they reported sometimes descended as low as 50 feet), and police from several other jurisdictions were involved in the pursuit. The chase ended about 30 minutes later near Freedom, Pennsylvania, some 85 miles away.


title: Project Blue Book

text: The UFO chase made national news, and the police submitted detailed reports to Blue Book. Five days later, following brief interviews with only one of the police officers (but none of the other ground witnesses), Blue Book's director, Major Hector Quintanilla, announced their conclusions: The police (one of them an Air Force gunner during the Korean War) had first chased a communications satellite, then the planet Venus.


title: Project Blue Book

text: This conclusion was widely derided, and police officers strenuously rejected it. In his dissenting conclusion, Hynek described Blue Book's conclusions as absurd: in their reports, several of the police had unknowingly described the moon, Venus "and" the UFO, though they unknowingly described Venus as a bright "star" very near the moon. Ohio Congressman William Stanton said that "The Air Force has suffered a great loss of prestige in this community ... Once people entrusted with the public welfare no longer think the people can handle the truth, then the people, in return, will no longer trust the government."


title: Project Blue Book

text: In September 1968, Hynek received a letter from Colonel Raymond Sleeper of the Foreign Technology Division. Sleeper noted that Hynek had publicly accused Blue Book of shoddy science, and further asked Hynek to offer advice on how Blue Book could improve its scientific methods. Hynek was to later declare that Sleeper's letter was "the first time in my 20 year association with the air force as scientific consultant that I had been officially asked for criticism and advice [regarding] ... the UFO problem."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Hynek wrote a detailed response, dated October 7, 1968, suggesting several areas where Blue Book could improve. In part, he wrote:


title: Project Blue Book

text: Despite Sleeper's request for criticism, none of Hynek's commentary resulted in any substantial changes in Blue Book.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Quintanilla's own perspective on the project is documented in his manuscript, "UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma." Lt. Col Quintanilla wrote the manuscript in 1975, but it was not published until after his death in 1998. Quintanilla states in the text that he personally believed it arrogant to think human beings were the only intelligent life in the universe. Yet, while he found it highly likely that intelligent life existed beyond earth, he had no hard evidence of any extraterrestrial visitation.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In 1966, a string of UFO sightings in Massachusetts and New Hampshire provoked a Congressional Hearing by the House Committee on Armed Services. According to attachments to the hearing, the Air Force had at first stated that the sightings were the result of a training exercise happening in the area. But NICAP, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, reported that there was no record of a plane flying at the time the sightings occurred. Another report alleged that the UFO was actually a flying billboard advertising gasoline. Raymond Fowler (of NICAP) added his own interviews with the locals, who saw Air Force officers confiscating newspapers with the story of UFOs and telling them not to report what they had seen. Two police officers who had witnessed the UFOs, Eugene Bertrand and David Hunt, wrote a letter to Major Quintanilla stating that they felt their reputations were destroyed by the Air Force. "It was impossible to mistake what we saw for any kind of military operation, regardless of altitude," the irritated officers wrote, adding that there was no way it could have been a balloon or helicopter.


title: Project Blue Book

text: According to Secretary Harold Brown of the Air Force, Blue Book consisted of three steps: investigation, analysis, and the distribution of information gathered to interested parties. After Brown gave permission, the press were invited into the hearing.


title: Project Blue Book

text: By the time of the hearing, Blue Book had identified and explained 95% of the reported UFO sightings. None of these were extraterrestrial or a threat to national security. Brown himself proclaimed, "I know of no one of scientific standing or executive standing with a detailed knowledge of this, in our organization who believes that they came from extraterrestrial sources." Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a science consultant to Blue Book, suggested in an unedited statement that a "civilian panel of physical and social scientists" be formed "for the express purpose of determining whether a major problem really exist" in regards to UFOs. Hynek remarked that he has "not seen any evidence to confirm" extraterrestrials, "nor do I know any competent scientist who has, or who believes that any kind of extraterrestrial intelligence is involved."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Criticism of Blue Book continued to grow through the mid-1960s. NICAP's membership ballooned to about 15,000, and the group charged the U.S. Government with a cover-up of UFO evidence.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Following U.S. Congressional hearings, the Condon Committee was established in 1966, ostensibly as a neutral scientific research body. However, the Committee became mired in controversy, with some members charging director Edward U. Condon with bias, and critics would question the validity and the scientific rigor of the Condon Report.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In the end, the Condon Committee suggested that there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs, and while it left a minority of cases unexplained, the report also argued that further research would not be likely to yield significant results.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In response to the Condon Committee's conclusions, Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. announced that Blue Book would soon be closed because further funding "cannot be justified either on the grounds of national security or in the interest of science." The last publicly acknowledged day of Blue Book operations was December 17, 1969. However, researcher Brad Sparks, citing research from the May 1970 issue of NICAP's "UFO Investigator", reports that the last day of Blue Book activity was actually January 30, 1970. According to Sparks, Air Force officials wanted to keep the Air Force's reaction to the UFO problem from overlapping into a fourth decade, and thus altered the date of Blue Book's closure in official files.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Blue Book's files were sent to the Air Force Archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. Major David Shea was to later claim that Maxwell was chosen because it was "accessible yet not too inviting."


title: Project Blue Book

text: In April 2003, the USAF publicly indicated that there were no immediate plans to re-establish any official government UFO study programs. However, in December 2017 it was disclosed that a new secret UFO study titled the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was funded at 22 million dollars from 2007 to 2012.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Below is the United States Air Force's official statement regarding UFOs, as noted in USAF Fact Sheet 95-03:


title: Project Blue Book

text: An Air Force memorandum (released via the Freedom of Information Act) dated October 20, 1969, and signed by Brigadier General Carroll H. "Rip" Bolender (the Deputy Director of Development and Acquisitions under the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff, Research and Development) states that even after Blue Book was dissolved, that "reports of UFOs" would still "continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedure designed for this purpose." Furthermore, wrote Bolender, "Reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security ... are not part of the Blue Book system." To date, these other investigation channels, agencies or groups (and Bolender's involvement therein) are unknown. Upon drafting the memo, Bolender, who assumed his generalship in 1965, had recently completed a detached tour as Program Manager for Lunar Excursion Module Operations in the Apollo program, likely reporting to fellow detached Air Force officer Samuel C. Phillips. He would continue to serve in this position and rank until he retired from the Air Force in 1972.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Additionally, author Howard Blum reports that Freedom of Information Act requests show that the U.S. Air Force has continued to catalog and track UFO sightings, particularly a series of dozens of UFO encounters from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s that occurred at U.S. military facilities with nuclear weapons. Blum writes that some of these official documents depart drastically from the normally dry and bureaucratic wording of government paperwork, making obvious the sense of "terror" that these UFO incidents inspired in many U.S.A.F. personnel.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In late December 1951, Ruppelt met with members of the Battelle Memorial Institute, a think tank based in Columbus, Ohio. Ruppelt wanted their experts to assist them in making the Air Force UFO study more scientific. It was the Battelle Institute that devised the standardized reporting form. Starting in late March 1952, the Institute started analyzing existing sighting reports and encoding about 30 report characteristics onto IBM punched cards for computer analysis.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 was their massive statistical analysis of Blue Book cases to date, some 3200 by the time the report was completed in 1954, after Ruppelt had left Blue Book. Even today, it represents the largest such study ever undertaken. Battelle employed four scientific analysts, who sought to divide cases into "knowns", "unknowns", and a third category of "insufficient information." They also broke down knowns and unknowns into four categories of quality, from excellent to poor. E.g., cases deemed excellent might typically involve experienced witnesses such as airline pilots or trained military personnel, multiple witnesses, corroborating evidence such as radar contact or photographs, etc. In order for a case to be deemed a "known", only two analysts had to independently agree on a solution. However, for a case to be called an "unknown", all four analysts had to agree. Thus the criterion for an "unknown" was quite stringent.


title: Project Blue Book

text: In addition, sightings were broken down into six different characteristics—color, number, duration of observation, brightness, shape, and speed and then these characteristics were compared between knowns and unknowns to see if there was a statistically significant difference.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Despite this, the summary section of the Battelle Institute's final report declared it was "highly improbable that any of the reports of unidentified aerial objects ... represent observations of technological developments outside the range of present-day knowledge." A number of researchers, including Dr. Bruce Maccabee, who extensively reviewed the data, have noted that the conclusions of the analysts were usually at odds with their own statistical results, displayed in 240 charts, tables, graphs and maps. Some conjecture that the analysts may simply have had trouble accepting their own results or may have written the conclusions to satisfy the new political climate within Blue Book following the Robertson Panel.


title: Project Blue Book

text: When the Air Force finally made Special Report #14 public in October 1955, it was claimed that the report scientifically proved that UFOs did not exist. Critics of this claim note that the report actually proved that the "unknowns" were distinctly different from the "knowns" at a very high statistical significance level. The Air Force also incorrectly claimed that only 3% of the cases studied were unknowns, instead of the actual 22%. They further claimed that the residual 3% would probably disappear if more complete data were available. Critics counter that this ignored the fact that the analysts had already thrown such cases into the category of "insufficient information", whereas both "knowns" and "unknowns" were deemed to have sufficient information to make a determination. Also, the "unknowns" tended to represent the higher quality cases, q.e. reports that already had better information and witnesses.


title: Project Blue Book

text: The result of the monumental BMI study was echoed by a 1979 French GEPAN report which stated that about a quarter of over 1,600 closely studied UFO cases defied explanation, stating, in part, "These cases ... pose a real question." When GEPAN's successor SEPRA closed in 2004, 5800 cases had been analyzed, and the percentage of inexplicable unknowns had dropped to about 14%. The head of SEPRA, Dr. Jean-Jacques Velasco, found the evidence of extraterrestrial origins so convincing in these remaining unknowns, that he wrote a book about it in 2005.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Hynek was an associate member of the Robertson Panel, which recommended that UFOs needed debunking. A few years later, however, Hynek's opinions about UFOs changed, and he thought they represented an unsolved mystery deserving scientific scrutiny. As the only scientist involved with US Government UFO studies from the beginning to the end, he could offer a unique perspective on Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book.


title: Project Blue Book

text: After what he described as a promising beginning with a potential for scientific research, Hynek grew increasingly disenchanted with Blue Book during his tenure with the project, leveling accusations of indifference, incompetence, and of shoddy research on the part of Air Force personnel. Hynek notes that during its existence, critics dubbed Blue Book "The Society for the Explanation of the Uninvestigated."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Blue Book was headed by Ruppelt, then Captain Hardin, Captain Gregory, Major Friend, and finally Major Hector Quintanilla. Hynek had kind words only for Ruppelt and Friend. Of Ruppelt, he wrote, "In my contacts with him I found him to be honest and seriously puzzled about the whole phenomenon." Of Friend, he wrote "Of all the officers I worked with in Blue Book, Colonel Friend earned my respect. Whatever private views he may have held, he was a total and practical realist, and sitting where he could see the scoreboard, he recognized the limitations of his office but conducted himself with dignity and a total lack of the bombast that characterized several of the other Blue Book heads."


title: Project Blue Book

text: He held Quintanilla in especially low regard: "Quintanilla's method was simple: disregard any evidence that was counter to his hypothesis." Hynek wrote that during Air Force Major Hector Quintanilla's tenure as Blue Book's director, "the flag of the utter nonsense school was flying at its highest on the mast." Hynek reported that Sergeant David Moody, one of Quintanilla's subordinates, "epitomized the conviction-before-trial method. Anything that he didn't understand or didn't like was immediately put into the psychological category, which meant 'crackpot'."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Hynek reported bitter exchanges with Moody when the latter refused to research UFO sightings thoroughly, describing Moody as "the master of the possible: possible balloon, possible aircraft, possible birds, which then became, by his own hand (and I argued with him violently at times) the probable."


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book was the inspiration for the 1978–1979 TV show "Project U.F.O." (which was known as "Project Blue Book" in some countries), which was supposedly based on Project Blue Book cases. However, the show frequently went against the actual project conclusion. The show deemed that aliens persisted to live on earth and live coherent lives among homosapians.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book played a major role in the second season of the 1990–1991 TV series "Twin Peaks". Major Garland Briggs, an Air Force officer who worked on the program, approaches protagonist Dale Cooper and reveals that Cooper's name turned up in an otherwise nonsensical radio transmission intercepted by the Air Force, which inexplicably originated from the woods surrounding the town of Twin Peaks. As the season progresses, it is revealed that the source of the transmission is the transdimensional realm of the Black Lodge, inhabited by beings which feed on the human emotions of pain and suffering; it eventually comes out that Briggs worked with Cooper's rival, corrupt FBI agent Windom Earle, on Project Blue Book, and that the two men apparently uncovered evidence of the Lodge during the course of their work.


title: Project Blue Book

text: Every episode of the original "Battlestar Galactica" spin-off series "Galactica 1980" ended with a short statement about the U.S. Air Force's 1969 Project Blue Book findings that UFOs are not proven to exist and "are not a threat to national security".


title: Project Blue Book

text: Project Blue Book is the inspiration for the drama series "Project Blue Book", which began airing on the History Channel in January 2019.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The 2003–04 season was the 106th in the history of Arsenal Football Club. It began on 1 July 2003 and concluded on 30 June 2004, with competitive matches played between August and May. The club ended the Premier League campaign as champions without a single defeat – a record of 26 wins and 12 draws. Arsenal fared less well in the cups, eliminated in the FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals to Manchester United and Middlesbrough respectively, and at the quarter-final stage of the UEFA Champions League to Chelsea.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The main addition to the first team was goalkeeper Jens Lehmann for £1.5 million; striker José Antonio Reyes was later purchased in the winter transfer window. Arsenal retained their best players and successfully negotiated new contracts for captain Patrick Vieira and midfielder Robert Pires. The stability of the squad meant Arsenal were considered front-runners for the Premier League title, along with Manchester United, and Chelsea who were taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A strong start to the season saw Arsenal top the league table after four matches. The team's draw at Manchester United in September marked an unsavoury episode between both clubs: several Arsenal players were charged and fined accordingly by The Football Association for their part in a mass brawl that occurred after the match. In November, Arsenal beat Dynamo Kyiv by a single goal and more impressively scored five against Inter Milan at the San Siro – two results which kick-started their Champions League campaign. At the turn of the year, the team won nine league matches in a row to consolidate first position. In the first week of April, they were eliminated from the FA Cup and Champions League, but by the end of the month had secured their status as league champions, with a 2–2 draw against local rivals Tottenham Hotspur.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: 34 different players represented the club in five competitions and there were 15 different goalscorers. Arsenal's top goalscorer for the third year running was Thierry Henry, who scored 39 goals in 51 games. The Frenchman was given the accolade of PFA Players' Player of the Year by his fellow peers and the FWA Footballer of the Year by football writers. Although the Arsenal team were unsuccessful in cup competitions, their dominance in the league was regarded by many commentators as a standalone achievement. They acquired the nickname "The Invincibles", much like the Preston North End team that went unbeaten in the inaugural Football League season. The club was awarded a golden replica trophy by the Premier League once the season concluded and they remained unbeaten for 49 games, setting a new record. In 2012, the Arsenal team of 2003–04 won the "Best Team" category in the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal had finished the previous season as runners-up in the Premier League, overhauled by Manchester United in the final ten weeks of the season. The club did, however, retain the FA Cup, with a 1–0 win against Southampton. Such was Arsenal's effective start to the 2002–03 campaign, manager Arsène Wenger suggested his team could remain the whole season undefeated in all competitions:It's not impossible as A.C. Milan once did it but I can't see why it's so shocking to say it. Do you think Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea don't dream that as well? They're exactly the same. They just don't say it because they're scared to look ridiculous, but nobody is ridiculous in this job as we know anything can happen. The team lost to Everton a month after Wenger's proclamation; teenager Wayne Rooney scored the match winner, which ended a run of 30 league games without defeat. By February 2003, Arsenal moved five points clear of Manchester United at the top of the league table, but injuries to key players, not least captain Patrick Vieira, had destabilised the team. Draws in April, coupled with a defeat to Leeds United at home, mathematically ended Arsenal's chances of retaining the title. Wenger refuted opinions from the media that their season was a failure and said:


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In the close season, Chelsea was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £140 million, the biggest takeover in British football history at the time. Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein however was displeased, and quipped that Abramovich had "parked his Russian tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes at us", Abramovich was said to have placed a bid for Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, which was turned down at once.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal's transfer activity in the summer was relatively quiet, given the financial constraints that came with the club's new stadium project. The club were able to keep the core of its team, successfully negotiating new contracts for Vieira and winger Robert Pires. German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was the only major addition to the first team; he replaced David Seaman who joined Manchester City. Ukrainian defender Oleh Luzhnyi ended his four-year association with the club by joining Wolverhampton Wanderers on a free transfer, while striker Graham Barrett moved to Coventry City. Striker Francis Jeffers, who found opportunities limited in the first team, joined his former club Everton on a season-long loan. Giovanni van Bronckhorst moved to Barcelona on a similar deal, with a view to a permanent transfer at the end of the season. Several young players were acquired from academies abroad, namely Gaël Clichy from Cannes and Johan Djourou, formerly of Étoile Carouge. In January 2004, Arsenal signed Spanish striker José Antonio Reyes from Sevilla and in April agreed a deal with Feyenoord for winger Robin van Persie.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Wenger at the start of the season prioritised regaining the league title: "I feel it is very important in our minds to do this and I know the hunger is strong to do it," and named Newcastle United and Liverpool, along with Manchester United and Chelsea, as Arsenal's main rivals for the Premier League. Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson asserted that his old club were favourites because they had the "best players … If they all remain fit week-in week-out then they will not be beaten." Glenn Moore of "The Independent" wrote of Arsenal's chances: "They will be thereabouts, but unless Wenger finally puts his faith in youth, and the likes of Jérémie Aliadière, Jermaine Pennant and Phillipe Senderos repay him, they may lack the depth to sustain a title campaign." Defender Sol Campbell however believed the squad was "strong enough for the league and FA Cup", but doubted their chances of winning the UEFA Champions League.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The club's home strip remained unchanged from the previous season; a red jersey with white sleeves, shorts and socks. The new away kit, a retro yellow jersey with a blue collar trim and shorts, was based on the Arsenal strip worn in the 1979 FA Cup Final.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: To prepare for the forthcoming season, Arsenal played a series of friendlies across Western Europe. Their first match ended in defeat against Peterborough United of the Second Division; goalkeeper Stuart Taylor was forced to come off the field after colliding with Peterborough substitute Lee Clarke in the second half. Arsenal then played out a draw against Barnet, where trialist Yaya Touré – the brother of Kolo, was included in the team. In a 2011 interview, Wenger recalled Yaya's performance as being "completely average on the day" and noted his impatience stopped him from joining Arsenal; Touré went on to play for Barcelona before joining Manchester City in 2010. Arsenal undertook a tour in Austria, a year after crowd troubles forced their match in Eisenstadt to be abandoned. Wenger was absent with a stomach upset so assistant manager Pat Rice took charge of Arsenal against SC Ritzing on 22 July 2003; the team came from two goals down to draw their second consecutive friendly. Rice was pleased with Philippe Senderos' cameo in defence and said: "Still some rough edges but he will only get better working with Martin Keown and Sol Campbell."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal recorded their first win of the pre-season against Austria Wien. Bergkamp capped off a "superb individual display" by scoring the first goal and setting up the second for Jeffers. The final match of the tour was against Beşiktaş, which required tightened security given the history between English and Turkish football supporters. Bergkamp scored the only goal of the match in the second half. An Arsenal XI in England two days later faced St Albans City, where they won 3–1. The main squad then travelled to Scotland to play Celtic on 2 August 2003. Both goals in the one-all draw came in the second half; the match marked the return of Vieira after three months out with a knee problem. Wenger revealed afterwards that he intended to use the pre-season as an experiment for his defence. He partnered centre back Campbell with Touré, who for much of last season played in midfield. Wenger was pleased with Touré's performance against Celtic and said: "He has quality. He was originally a central defender and, because we have kept a few clean sheets recently and he's played well, I thought we'd keep him there." An Arsenal XI travelled to Belgium for a game against Beveren and conceded two goals in the final five minutes to draw the match 2–2. Arsenal rounded off their pre-season preparations with a 3–0 win against Rangers on 5 August 2003.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The 2003 edition of the FA Community Shield, an annual English football match, was contested between Manchester United and Arsenal at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 10 August. Arsenal participated in the match as a result of their FA Cup win in 2002–03, while Manchester United were the league champions. Lehmann made his first competitive start for Arsenal and Touré continued to partner Campbell in central defence. United took a 15th-minute lead through Mikaël Silvestre, but Henry equalised for Arsenal soon after, from a free-kick. Jeffers was sent off in the second half for kicking out at Phil Neville and no further goals scored meant the outcome of the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out. Goalkeeper Tim Howard saved Van Bronckhorst and Pires' spot kicks as United won the game 4–3 on penalties. Wenger made reference to Arsenal's low crowd turnout after the match and suggested it meant there was "less and less appetite" for the Shield. He was unhappy with the league season commencing on the following Saturday: "I would have preferred to have had two more weeks, especially for the French players who were in the Confederations Cup. We certainly were not as fit as Manchester United and know many of our players were behind them fitness-wise."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The 2003–04 season of the Premier League saw 20 teams play 38 matches: two against every other team, with one match at each club's stadium. Three points were awarded for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats. At the end of the season the top two teams qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League; teams in third and fourth needed to play a qualifier.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal hosted Everton at Highbury on the opening weekend of the season. Campbell was sent off in the 25th minute for a professional foul on Everton midfielder Thomas Gravesen. Arsenal, despite their man disadvantage, went two goals up after 58 minutes, before Tomasz Radzinski scored for the visitors late on. A trip to the Riverside Stadium to face Middlesbrough a week after ended in a 4–0 win; the first three goals, scored by Henry, Gilberto Silva and Sylvain Wiltord, all came in the first half. Three days later, Campbell and Henry scored as Aston Villa were beaten by two goals. Arsenal continued their perfect start to the season with an away win against Manchester City on 31 August 2003. As Campbell was suspended, Martin Keown came into the first team to partner Touré. Although Arsenal conceded first – a "comical" own goal by Lauren – and played "the worst 45 minutes that any of their fans could remember" according to journalist Matt Dickinson, Wiltord equalised in the second half, before Freddie Ljungberg took advantage of a Seaman error to score the winning goal. After four matches, Arsenal stood in first position, three points clear of Manchester United.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Due to international fixtures, Arsenal did not play another game for two weeks. On the resumption of club football, they faced newly promoted Portsmouth at home. Striker Teddy Sheringham gave the visitors a deserved lead, before Arsenal were awarded a penalty when Pires was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area by Dejan Stefanović. Henry scored, and though their performance noticeably improved in the second half, the game ended in a draw. Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp complained about the penalty decision post-match and felt Pires "…was going to get a yellow card [for diving]." The player himself denied accusations that he deceived the referee: "I did not dive and I am not a cheat. That is not the way I play."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A week later, Arsenal travelled to face Manchester United at Old Trafford. Pires and Wiltord were dropped by Wenger in favour of Ray Parlour and Ljungberg; Campbell did not travel due to family bereavement. In the 80th minute, Vieira was sent off for a second bookable offence: he attempted to kick out at striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, which was seen by referee Steve Bennett. With the score 0–0, United were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute, but Van Nistelrooy's spot kick hit the bar and rebounded back into play. At the final whistle, Van Nistelrooy was immediately confronted by several Arsenal players, which escalated into an altercation between both teams. Six of Arsenal's players (Ashley Cole, Lauren, Keown, Parlour, Lehmann, and Vieira) were later charged with improper conduct by The Football Association (FA), while the club were fined £175,000, the largest ever given to a club by the FA. Lauren received a four-game ban, whereas Vieira and Parlour were given one-match suspensions.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In their next match, Arsenal defeated Newcastle United by three goals to two; the winner was a penalty scored by Henry. Vieira suffered an injury during the game; this commenced a period of him being in and out of the side for two months. Arsenal then faced Liverpool on the first weekend of October at Anfield. In the absence of Vieira, Parlour was on duty as captain, while Campbell replaced Keown in defence. Aliadière was paired alongside Henry in attack. Arsenal went a goal down after 11 minutes, but equalised when Sami Hyypiä unintentionally diverted Edu's header from an Arsenal free-kick. Pires scored the winner in the second half, which maintained the team's lead at the top of the league table. "The Times" correspondent Oliver Kay described Arsenal's comeback as "spirited" and noted a difference with the team, in comparison to the previous season:


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A tightly-fought match against Chelsea at home was settled by a second-half error by goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, which presented Henry with his seventh league goal in nine matches. Both teams up until that point were level on points at the top of the table and unbeaten. Wenger noted after the match that Chelsea's bigger squad would serve them well as the season progressed, but stressed his smaller squad had stability: "We have been together for years and have the comfort of knowing we have won things before. When we are challenged, we become even more united." Arsenal ended October with a 1–1 draw against Charlton Athletic. After 10 games, Arsenal garnered 24 points. The point earnt at Charlton was enough for the team to move back into first position, which had been occupied by Chelsea.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal began November with a trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United. There were no changes to the team from the Charlton game; for Leeds, Pennant started against his parent club after being granted permission by Wenger. Arsenal's victory by four goals to one was identical to the scoreline in the corresponding fixture of last season. In a match report for the "News of the World", journalist Martin Samuel picked Henry as the man of the match and asserted Arsenal remained the team to beat. Attention soon turned to the North London derby, where Arsenal played Tottenham Hotspur on 8 November 2003. Tottenham had not beaten their rivals since November 1999 and their last win at Highbury had come a decade previously. Kanu was brought into the starting line-up to partner Henry, as Wiltord was ruled out with a calf strain. Arsenal conceded an early goal after Darren Anderton capitalised on a defensive mix-up, but they scored two late goals in what was described as "another stuttering" performance in "The Observer". The result put Arsenal four points clear in first, albeit temporarily as Chelsea's win at home to Newcastle United 24 hours later cut their gap to one point.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal did not play another game for a fortnight because of the international football break. On the resumption of club football, they played Birmingham City away from home. As suspensions came into action and there were injuries to first-team players, Wenger was forced to reshuffle his team. Clichy was handed his full debut and Pascal Cygan made his first start of the season, partnering Campbell. Ljungberg opened the scoring for Arsenal inside four minutes; further goals by Bergkamp and Pires ensured the team won their third straight match of November. By extending their unbeaten run from the start of the season to 13 league matches, Arsenal set a new Premier League record. They were then held by Fulham to a goalless draw who became the first team to deny Arsenal from scoring in 46 league matches at Highbury. "The Guardian" correspondent David Lacey summarised Arsenal's football on the day as "strong in the string section but short on percussion" and noted they reverted to the pattern of scoring a perfect goal, instead of being efficient. Chelsea's 1–0 win over Manchester United meant Arsenal moved down to second place on the final day of November.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Two more points were dropped in Arsenal's next match, away to Leicester City on the first weekend of December. Henry was absent from the starting team, as was captain Vieira. Arsenal had taken the lead at the hour mark through a Gilberto header, but conceded the equaliser in stoppage time. What made matters worse was the dismissal of Cole for a two-footed lunge on Ben Thatcher; he missed the team's next three fixtures as a result. Wenger said afterwards: "It looked like Ashley wanted to get the ball but it was a two-footed tackle that was too high, it was a red card and we have to accept it." A goal from Bergkamp earned Arsenal a 1–0 win the following week, at home to Blackburn Rovers. Chelsea's defeat a day before meant that the win for Arsenal was enough to take them back top, a point clear of Manchester United, who were now in second place.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal then travelled to the Reebok Stadium to play Bolton on 20 December 2003, the setting where their title challenge faltered eight months ago. Although they again picked up just a point, Wenger believed it was a useful one: "Provided Bolton keep playing like that, we will look back at this result and feel very happy. They are as good as a team as we have played." On Boxing Day, Henry scored twice for Arsenal in a 3–0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Three days later, the team played Southampton. The only goal of the match came in the first half: Henry's through pass found Pires, "who slid the ball beneath the exposed Antti Niemi". The win meant Arsenal had gone half the season without losing, and the team, according to "The Times", had begun to "establish an aura of invincibility". Arsenal ended the calendar year in second place, with 45 points from 19 matches. They were one point behind leaders Manchester United and three ahead of Chelsea.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: On 7 January 2004, Arsenal played Everton at Goodison Park. Wenger made a host of changes: Cygan was recalled in central defence, which meant Touré was shifted onto the right and Lauren was dropped, while Parlour started in place of Gilberto in midfield. Kanu had given Arsenal the lead in the first half, only for Radzinski to score a "richly deserved late equaliser" for Everton with fifteen minutes remaining. Manchester United's victory at Bolton on the same night increased the reigning champions' lead at the top to three points. Three days after the Everton match, Arsenal hosted Middlesbrough and put on a display Wenger described as one of the season's best: "We kept playing our natural game and could have scored more," he said. The 4–1 win meant Arsenal moved back top of the league, albeit alphabetically, as their points, goal difference and goals scored were identical to that of Manchester United. A week later, Arsenal beat Aston Villa by two goals to nil; both of the team's goals were scored by Henry. Controversy surrounded the Frenchman's first goal, a quickly-taken free-kick which prompted confusion amongst Villa's players and brought about a reaction towards referee Mark Halsey, who signalled it was permissible. After 22 games played, Arsenal were in first place, two points clear of Manchester United.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal remained unbeaten throughout February, winning all five matches. In a home match against Manchester City, Reyes made his first appearance for the club, coming on as a substitute in the second half. He had no part in the winning goal, a "crunching, beautifully judged 25-yarder" scored by Henry. Arsenal recorded an away win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on 7 February 2004, their 24th league match, which bettered a club record of games unbeaten from the start of the season (originally held by George Graham's team of 1990–91). Wenger in his post-match press conference played down the record, and said of the unbeaten run: "You need a little bit of luck and mental qualities." Henry reached a personal landmark against Southampton three days later, scoring his 100th and 101st Premier League goals. The victory moved Arsenal five points clear at the top, although they had played one more game than Manchester United.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A Saturday lunchtime kick-off against Chelsea saw the return of Henry; he was absent in Arsenal's FA Cup fifth round win against the same opposition. Arsenal found themselves a goal down after 27 seconds, but responded with an equaliser in the 15th minute – Bergkamp's "delicately curving pass" found Vieira on the left side to shoot the ball past goalkeeper Neil Sullivan. The winner came six minutes later: Sullivan misjudged a corner taken by Henry, which allowed Edu to shoot into an empty net. Arsenal's lead was now seven and it represented "a stronger position than any they held last season" according to Wenger. Touré's transition into a defender was highlighted in "The Times" football supplement:


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The final match of the month was against Charlton at Highbury. Arsenal scored twice in the space of the opening four minutes, but by the end were "clinging to their lead like nervous kittens". After 27 games, the team stood in first position and had accumulated 67 points. They were nine points clear of both Chelsea and Manchester United.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal carried their good form into March; Henry and Pires scored in the defeat of Blackburn Rovers. It was a laboured performance from the league leaders, one which served a "…reminder of the old maxim that championships are won by teams who can pick up points when they are not playing well." Arsenal then played Bolton Wanderers at home; Wenger made one change from the previous match – Bergkamp replaced Reyes upfront. The blustery conditions forced the game to be delayed by 15 minutes, approximately the same amount of time it took Pires to score Arsenal's opener. By the 24th minute, it was 2–0: Henry's cross found Bergkamp, who shot the ball past Jussi Jääskeläinen at the first attempt. Although Bolton's performance improved after scoring just before half-time, the result was a ninth straight league win for Arsenal and kept them nine points clear at the top.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The visit of Manchester United on 28 March 2004 provided a stern test for Arsenal - it was both clubs' first meeting since the fiasco at Old Trafford. Cole, injured in the midweek Champions League game against Chelsea, was replaced by Clichy in the starting line-up, while Bergkamp was dropped for Reyes. Henry gave Arsenal the lead with a long range shot that swerved past goalkeeper Roy Carroll. With five minutes of the game left, Louis Saha evaded the Arsenal defence and scored the equaliser for Manchester United. Arsenal came close to a winner in injury time, only for Lauren to have his shot saved. The draw was no good for Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, who afterwards conceded his team's chances: "They'll (Arsenal) go on to win the league now – I'm sure of that. They are playing with great determination … a very strong team, so should win the league really". In avoiding defeat, Arsenal set a new all-time league record of 30 matches unbeaten from the start of the season, originally held by Leeds and Liverpool. They remained in first position at the end of March and were seven points in front of Chelsea with eight matches remaining.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: After two cup exits in the space of a week, Arsenal faced Liverpool on Good Friday at Highbury. Hyypiä opened the scoring for the visitors after five minutes, and in spite of Henry's equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Liverpool led again before the interval. Arsenal responded by scoring twice in a minute; Henry's second goal saw the player hold off Dietmar Hamann in midfield, weave through defender Jamie Carragher, and place the ball past Jerzy Dudek. The striker completed his hat-trick in the 78th minute, after good work by Bergkamp. Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier likened Arsenal to a "wounded animal" after the match and believed Henry was "the man who made the difference … he set the tempo". Arsenal played out a goalless draw with Newcastle United on Bank Holiday Monday, and five days later faced Leeds United. On a night where Henry scored four goals and was described by his manager as "the best striker in the world", Arsenal moved to within two wins of regaining the league title.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: With Chelsea unable to garner maximum points in their next two matches, Arsenal knew before their game away at Tottenham that a draw would guarantee their status as champions. Cole returned for the derby after sitting out the Leeds match with an ankle injury. Arsenal took an early lead when Vieira finished off a counter-attacking move. Incisive football brought about the second goal, ten minutes before the break. Bergkamp passed the ball to Vieira, who cut it back for Pires to sidefoot. Tottenham replied in the second half by scoring twice – the equaliser a penalty – but it did not stop the Arsenal players celebrating at the final whistle "in front of their supporters' White Hart Lane enclave". This marked the second time that the club had been crowned league champions at their rivals' ground: the first time had been in 1971. Wenger praised his team for their success, telling the BBC: "We've been remarkably consistent, haven't lost a game and we have played stylish football. We have entertained people who just love football."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In May, successive draws at home to Birmingham City and Portsmouth left Arsenal with 84 points from 36 games. Reyes scored the only goal of the match against Fulham; he profited from a mistake by goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar: "The Dutchman tried to go past the Arsenal forward, but instead gifted possession and with it the easiest of open goals." Arsenal's final game of the league season was against Leicester City. They conceded the opening goal, but turned the match around in the second half through goals from Henry and Vieira. With 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats, the team became the first since Preston North End in 1888–89 to go through a league season undefeated. Reviewing the match and overall season, Amy Lawrence of "The Observer" wrote: "Arsenal's achievement may not make them 'great' in everyone's opinion – those who define greatness only by European Cups, back-to-back titles, and triple cartwheels on the way to every goal – but it is staggering in its own right."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The FA Cup is English football's primary cup competition. It was first held in 1871–72 with only 15 teams entering; the growth of the sport and changes to the competition's structure meant that by 2000, more than 600 teams took part. Clubs in the Premier League enter the FA Cup in the third round and are drawn randomly out of a hat with the remaining clubs. If a match is drawn it is replayed, ordinarily at the ground of the team who were away for the first game. As with league fixtures, FA Cup matches are subject to change in the event of games being selected for television coverage and this often can be influenced by clashes with other competitions. In the case of Arsenal, all but one of their ties (fourth round) was televised to the British audience.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal entered the 2003–04 edition as holders of the cup. The team were undefeated in 14 cup ties since their 2–1 loss to Liverpool in the 2001 FA Cup Final, and aimed to win the competition for a third season in succession, something last achieved by Blackburn Rovers from 1884 to 1886. Henry believed Arsenal's good cup form showed they were "interested" in the competition and hoped their success would continue. The FA Cup was not high in Wenger's priority list – "The [Premier League] and the Champions League are more important," but he clarified this never meant Arsenal intended to neglect the competition: "You win what you can and go as far as you can."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal were drawn to face Leeds United away in the third round; the match was played on the first weekend of January. Wenger made six changes to the team which started at Southampton in the league, including Cole replacing Clichy at left-back after serving his three-match suspension. After eight minutes, Leeds went ahead when Lehmann's goal clearance hit striker Mark Viduka and rebounded into the net. Arsenal equalised through Henry, who converted Ljungberg's cross from the right on a volley. Additional goals from Edu, Pires and Touré inflicted a third consecutive 4–1 defeat for Leeds against Arsenal at Elland Road. At home to Middlesbrough in the fourth round, Bergkamp opened the scoring for Arsenal, following good play from Parlour. Joseph-Désiré Job equalised for the away team four minutes after, but Ljungberg restored Arsenal's lead with a shot outside the penalty box and scored a second, direct from a corner. George Boateng was sent off for the visitors in the 86th minute for two bookable offences and substitute David Bentley added a fourth goal for Arsenal, chipping the ball over goalkeeper Schwarzer in the last minute of normal time.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In the fifth round, Arsenal played Chelsea at Highbury. Five minutes before the end of the first half, striker Adrian Mutu gave Chelsea the lead, with a shot from 20 yards. Reyes, who replaced Henry in the starting eleven for the tie, levelled the scoreline with a long range effort. He beat goalkeeper Sullivan for pace to score his second, which later proved to be the winning goal of the match. The quarter-final pitted Arsenal against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on 6 March 2004. Henry opened the scoring in the 25th minute and further goals from himself, Ljungberg and Touré secured the team's passage into the last four of the competition. Edu was singled out for praise by "The Guardian" correspondent Kevin McCarra, who enthused over the visitors' performance: "Arsenal echoed the Ajax philosophy as players swapped position and kept changing the point of attack before the mesmerised eyes of the opposition."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Manchester United were Arsenal's opponents for the semi-final, staged at Villa Park on 3 April 2004. Both teams had settled for a draw in the league the previous Sunday, but given this was for a place in the final, the stakes were much higher. United defender Gary Neville described the game as his team's "most important" of the season after they were eliminated from the Champions League and he deemed them "too far behind" in the Premier League. Wenger rested Henry, mindful of the team's upcoming fixture congestion. Although Arsenal started the better of the two teams, it was United midfielder Paul Scholes who scored the only goal of the game which ensured their progress into the final.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The Football League Cup is a cup competition open to clubs in the Premier League and Football League. Like the FA Cup it is played on a knockout basis, with the exception of the semi-finals, which are contested over a two-legged tie. Wenger's tenure at Arsenal has seen him use the competition to field younger and lesser known players, something he and Ferguson were initially criticised for in 1997. While Ferguson felt it was an unwanted distraction at the time, Wenger said: "If the competition wants to survive it must offer the incentive of a European place." The winners of the League Cup in the 2003–04 season earnt entry into the UEFA Cup, unless they qualified for the UEFA Champions League through their league position. League Cup matches are subject to change in the event of games being selected for television coverage, inclement weather and potential competition clashes. All rounds up until the final are played in midweek.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal entered the League Cup in the third round and were drawn at home to Rotherham United. Wenger handed midfielder Cesc Fàbregas his debut at 16 years and 177 days; as of 2016 is still the youngest player to turn out for the club. Arsenal led from the 11th minute through an Aliadière goal, but conceded an equaliser late on which forced extra time. Rotherham goalkeeper Mike Pollitt was sent off for handling the ball outside his penalty area; his substitute Gary Montgomery denied Wiltord from scoring the winner. As there were no further goals, the match was decided on penalties which Arsenal won 9–8 in the shootout. Fellow divisional opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers were defeated 5–1 by Arsenal in the fourth round; Vieira, absent through injury in September and October, made his first team return and played the full match.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In the fifth round, Arsenal travelled to The Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion. Wenger added experience to the side to complement youth, with Parlour, Edu, Kanu and Keown all featuring. Arsenal took the lead in the 25th minute through Kanu. Lauren's cross from the right-hand side deflected in the direction of the striker. His header was saved by goalkeeper Russell Hoult, who was unable to deny Kanu shooting the rebounded ball into the net. Aliadière scored Arsenal's second goal of the match following Hoult's poor clearance.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal exited the competition in the semi-finals against Middlesbrough. At Highbury, the setting for the first leg, Juninho scored the only goal of the tie. Arsenal's task of progressing was made more difficult after Keown was sent off in the second leg and Boudewijn Zenden doubled Middlesbrough's aggregate scoreline. Though Edu equalised for Arsenal on the night, Reyes' own goal earnt Middlesbrough the win. Wenger opined of the result: "I don't think we deserved to lose; even when we were down to 10 men we were running the game."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The UEFA Champions League is a continental club football competition organised by UEFA. Founded in the 1950s as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the competition was open to champion clubs of each country and arranged as a straight knockout tournament. The growth of television rights saw the format rebranded in the 1990s to include a group stage and permit multiple entrants. Arsenal had qualified for every Champions League season since 1998–99, but the club never progressed further than the quarter-final stage. Ahead of the new campaign, Wenger assessed his team needed to perform in the home games, adding: "We are mature enough now and we must add that little bit of sparkle to make the difference."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal were drawn in Group B, along with Italian club Inter Milan, Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia and Ukraine's Dynamo Kyiv. Wenger believed the trips to Eastern Europe threatened his team's chances of winning the Premier League: "The other English teams have more comfortable groups than we do. It is tough to go to Russia – I always say that if you have to travel more than two hours it is difficult. Sometimes the players pay a high price in the games that follow the Champions League matches."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal opened their Champions League campaign with a 3–0 defeat against Inter Milan. Goals from Julio Ricardo Cruz, Andy van der Meyde and Obafemi Martins all in the first half extended Arsenal's run of six home games in the competition without a win. Wenger said afterwards: "We can complain and cry the whole night but that will not change the result. The only thing we can do is to respond." The team, without Campbell and Vieira, earned a draw away to Lokomotiv Moscow, but remained bottom of the group. Arsenal lost to Dynamo Kyiv in late October; Wenger's decision to shift from his preferred 4–4–2 formation caused the team to play more narrow than usual. Cole scored the winning goal in the reverse fixture at Highbury. A cross by Wiltord was flicked on by Henry in the direction of an incoming Cole, who dived to head the ball past goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskyi.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The team scored four goals in the second half against Inter Milan and won 5–1. Wenger felt the result showed there was "…a special mental strength in the team", while Cole compared it to England's victory against Germany in 2001 but added "this was even better." Arsenal won 2–0 against Lokomotiv Moscow to top Group B. Jacob Lekgetho's dismissal in the eighth minute meant the visitors played the remainder of the match with ten men.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal were paired up against Celta Vigo in the last 16 stage and the first leg was held at the Balaídos. Although they conceded two goals from set pieces, Arsenal scored three times to win the game which put the team in a favourable position given the away goals rule. Their passage was secured with a 2–0 win on 10 March 2004; Henry scored both goals for the team.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In the quarter-finals, Arsenal met fellow English club Chelsea. The draw disappointed vice-chairman Dein: "One of the joys of playing in Europe is playing teams from overseas – and having played Chelsea three times, it is a bit anti-climactic." The first leg, played at Stamford Bridge ended in a draw with Guðjohnsen and Pires scoring for their respective clubs. Arsenal were unable to take advantage of Marcel Desailly's dismissal in the second half, but Wenger felt his team were in a good position to progress: "Our main aim will be to win the game at Highbury and we know we can do that."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Henry, rested for the FA Cup semi-final match, started alongside Reyes for the second leg. It was the latter forward who gave Arsenal the lead in injury time of the first half, but Frank Lampard equalised for Chelsea in the 51st minute. With three minutes remaining of the match, defender Wayne Bridge scored to eliminate Arsenal from the competition.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal used a total of 34 players during the 2003–04 season and there were 15 different goalscorers. There were also three squad members who did not make a first-team appearance in the campaign. The team played in a 4–4–2 formation throughout the season, with two wide midfielders. Touré featured in 55 matches – the most of any Arsenal player in the campaign and Lehmann started in all 38 league matches.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The team scored a total of 114 goals in all competitions. The highest scorer was Henry, with 39 goals, followed by Pires who scored 19 goals. Three of Arsenal's goals in the 2003–04 season (Henry against Manchester City and Liverpool, Vieira against Tottenham Hotspur) were shortlisted for Goal of the Season by viewers of ITV's "The Premiership". Five Arsenal players were sent off during the season: Jeffers, Vieira, Campbell, Cole and Keown.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: In recognition of the team's achievement, Wenger was awarded the Barclaycard Manager of the Year. A spokesperson of the awards panel said of the decision: "Arsène Wenger is a very worthy recipient of this accolade and has sent his team into the history books. Arsenal have played exciting attacking football throughout the season and finishing it unbeaten is a feat that may not be repeated for another 100 years." Henry was given the accolade of PFA Players' Player of the Year by his fellow peers and the FWA Footballer of the Year by football writers for the second consecutive season. He came runner-up in both the 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year and the 2003 Ballon d'Or.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Three Arsenal players received the Premier League Player of the Month award – Henry twice in January and April 2004, and Bergkamp and Edu shared the accolade in February 2004 after the judges "felt it was appropriate that we make a joint award". Wenger was the Premier League Manager of the Month in August 2003 and February 2004.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A day after the Leicester City match, Arsenal paraded the Premier League trophy on an open-top bus, in front of more than 250,000 fans. The victory parade commenced at Highbury and ended at Islington Town Hall. At the town hall balcony, Vieira addressed the crowd: "It has been a fantastic season. We achieved something unbelievable but we couldn't have done it without the fans." In an interview with the BBC, Dein added: "We've seen history made and I'd be surprised if it happens again. It's just been a privilege to watch Arsenal this season."


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: Arsenal's achievement of going through the league season unbeaten received considerable praise from those involved in football. Derek Shaw, the chairman of Preston offered his congratulations as they equalled his club's record of completing a league season without defeat, set 115 years previously. Brazilian Roberto Carlos likened Arsenal's style of play to "samba football" while Michel Platini applauded the team's "great flair and spirit". Former Arsenal manager George Graham attributed the success to defensive improvements, since mistakes the previous season had proved costly and former striker Alan Smith felt the team were "certainly the best Highbury's ever seen".


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The British press unanimously praised Arsenal's feat once the season drew to a close; the "News of the World" branded the team as "Immortals", while "The Sunday Times" led with the headline "Arsenal the New Invincibles". In an otherwise positive reflection of Arsenal's season, Glenn Moore wrote for "The Independent": "There may thus have been some truth in Arsène Wenger's declaration that Arsenal's achievement was a greater triumph than winning the Champions' League. Arsenal's prolonged celebrations reflected the scale of this landmark and yet, when they reflect in the summer break, how many players will agree with Wenger?".


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: A one-off golden replica trophy was commissioned by the Premier League thereafter; it was awarded to Arsenal before their first home game of the following season. The team eclipsed the league record of 42 matches without defeat (set by Nottingham Forest) against Blackburn Rovers and went seven more matches unbeaten until they lost – away to Manchester United in October 2004. Although Arsenal regained the FA Cup – on penalties against United – they finished second to Chelsea in the league. The move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 coincided with a transitional phase for the club. Several experienced first teamers were displaced in favour of youth and the style of football shifted more towards ball retention. Arsenal have since failed to regain the league title; they nevertheless remained a fixture in the Champions League under Wenger's stewardship in the years after.


title: 2003–04 Arsenal F.C. season

text: The title win at White Hart Lane came third in a list of Arsenal's "Greatest 50 Moments", and the performance at the San Siro was ranked tenth. In 2012, the Arsenal team of 2003–04 won the "Best Team" category in the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards.


title: Animals in space

text: Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted. Later, other non-human animals were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them. Bioastronautics is an area of bioengineering research which spans the study and support of life in space. To date, seven national space programs have flown animals into space: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.


title: Animals in space

text: A wide variety of animals have been launched into space, including monkeys and apes, dogs, cats, tortoises, mice, rats, rabbits, fish, frogs, spiders, quail eggs (which hatched in 1990 on "Mir"), and insects. The US launched flights carrying primates primarily between 1948 and 1961, with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985. France launched two monkey-carrying flights in 1967. The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet space program used a number of dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights.


title: Animals in space

text: Two tortoises and several varieties of plants were the first inhabitants of Earth to circle the Moon, on the 1968 Zond 5 mission. In 1972 five mice, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey, orbited the Moon a record 75 times in Apollo 17's Command Module "America", the last crewed voyage to the Moon.


title: Animals in space

text: Animals had been used in aeronautic exploration since 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck, and a rooster aloft in a hot air balloon to see if ground-dwelling animals can survive (the duck serving as the experimental control). The limited supply of captured German V-2 rockets led to the U.S. use of high-altitude balloon launches carrying fruit flies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, frogs, goldfish and monkeys to heights of up to . These high-altitude balloon flights from 1947 to 1960 tested radiation exposure, physiological response, life support and recovery systems. The U.S. high-altitude manned balloon flights occurred in the same time frame, one of which also carried fruit flies.


title: Animals in space

text: The first animals sent into space were fruit flies aboard a U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The purpose of the experiment was to explore the effects of radiation exposure at high altitudes. The rocket reached in 3 minutes 10 seconds, past both the U.S. Air Force and the international 100 km definitions of the boundary of space. The Blossom capsule was ejected and successfully deployed its parachute. The fruit flies were recovered alive. Other V-2 missions carried biological samples, including moss.


title: Animals in space

text: Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first monkey, first primate, and first mammal in space on 14 June 1949, in a U.S.-launched V-2, after the failure of the original Albert's mission on ascent. Albert I reached only altitude; Albert II reached about . Albert II died on impact after a parachute failure.


title: Animals in space

text: Numerous monkeys of several species were flown by the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Monkeys were implanted with sensors to measure vital signs, and many were under anesthesia during launch. The death rate among these monkeys was very high: about two-thirds of all monkeys launched in the 1940s and 1950s died on missions or soon after landing.


title: Animals in space

text: On 31 August 1950, the U.S. launched a mouse into space (137 km) aboard a V-2 (the Albert V flight, which, unlike the Albert I-IV flights, did not have a monkey), however the animal died following descent because the parachute system failed. The U.S. launched several other mice in the 1950s.


title: Animals in space

text: On 22 July 1951, the Soviet Union launched the R-1 IIIA-1 flight, carrying the dogs Tsygan (, "Gypsy") and Dezik () into space, but not into orbit. These two dogs were the first living higher organisms successfully recovered from a spaceflight. Both space dogs survived the flight, although Dezik would die on a subsequent flight. The U.S. launched mice aboard spacecraft later that year; however, they failed to reach the altitude for true spaceflight.


title: Animals in space

text: On 3 November 1957, the second-ever orbiting spacecraft carried the first animal into orbit, the dog Laika, launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft (nicknamed 'Muttnik' in the West). Laika died during the flight, as was expected because the technology to return spacecraft from orbit had not yet been developed. At least 10 other dogs were launched into orbit and numerous others on sub-orbital flights before the historic date of 12 April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.


title: Animals in space

text: On 13 December 1958, a Jupiter IRBM, AM-13, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a United States Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo was lost. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10 g of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 "g" of reentry at . The nose cone sank downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered.


title: Animals in space

text: Monkeys Miss Able and Miss Baker became the first monkeys to survive spaceflight after their 1959 flight. On 28 May 1959, aboard Jupiter IRBM AM-18, were a American-born rhesus monkey, Able, from Independence, Kansas, and a squirrel monkey from Peru, Baker. The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of and a distance of down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral, Florida. They withstood forces 38 times the normal pull of gravity and were weightless for about 9 minutes. A top speed of was reached during their 16-minute flight. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. Baker was the center of media attention for the next several months as she was watched closely for any ill-effects from her space flight. She was even mated in an attempt to test her reproductive system. Baker lived until 29 November 1984, at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.


title: Animals in space

text: On 2 July 1959, a launch of a Soviet R2 rocket, which reached , carried two space dogs and Marfusha, the first rabbit to go into space.


title: Animals in space

text: A 19 September 1959 launch, a Jupiter AM-23, carried two frogs and 12 mice but was destroyed during launch.


title: Animals in space

text: On 4 December 1959, a rhesus macaque Sam flew on the Little Joe 2 mission of Project Mercury to an altitude of .


title: Animals in space

text: On 19 August 1960 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 (also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2) which carried the dogs Belka and Strelka, along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants. It was the first spacecraft to carry animals into orbit and return them alive. One of Strelka's pups, Pushinka, bred and born after her mission, was given as a present to Caroline Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961, and many descendants are known to exist.


title: Animals in space

text: The US sent three black mice: Sally, Amy and Moe 1,000 km up and 8,000 km distance from Cape Canaveral on 13 October 1960 using an Atlas D 71D launch vehicle. The mice were retrieved from the nosecone near Ascension Island and were said to be in good condition.


title: Animals in space

text: On 31 January 1961, Ham, a chimpanzee, was launched into sub-orbital space in a Mercury capsule aboard a Redstone rocket to become the first great ape in space. Ham's mission was Mercury-Redstone 2. The chimpanzee had been trained to pull levers to receive rewards of banana pellets and avoid electric shocks. His flight demonstrated the ability to perform tasks during spaceflight. A little over three months later the United States sent Alan Shepard into space. Enos became the first and only chimpanzee to reach orbit on 29 November 1961, in another Mercury capsule, an Atlas rocket, Mercury-Atlas 5.


title: Animals in space

text: On 9 March 1961 the Soviet Union launched the Korabl-Sputnik 4 that carried a dog named Chernushka, some mice, frogs and, for the first time into space, a guinea pig. All were successfully recovered.


title: Animals in space

text: France flew their first rat (Hector) into space on 22 February 1961. Two more rats were flown in October 1962.


title: Animals in space

text: On 18 October 1963, France launched Félicette the cat aboard Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47. The launch was directed by the French Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA). Félicette was recovered alive after a 15-minute flight and a descent by parachute. Félicette had electrodes implanted into her brain, and the recorded neural impulses were transmitted back to Earth. After two months of analysis, she was euthanised so an autopsy could be performed. On 18 December 2019 a bronze statue with the effigy of Félicette was inaugurated at the "Université internationalle de l'espace" in Strasbourg, France. A second cat was sent to space by CERMA on 24 October 1963, but the flight ran into difficulties that prevented recovery. The final French animal launches were of two monkeys in March 1967.


title: Animals in space

text: During the Voskhod program, two Soviet space dogs, Veterok (Ветерок, Little Wind) and Ugolyok (Уголёк, Blackie), were launched on 22 February 1966, on board Cosmos 110 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March. This spaceflight of record-breaking duration was not surpassed by humans until Soyuz 11 in 1971 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs.


title: Animals in space

text: The US launched Biosatellite I in 1966 and Biosatellite I/II in 1967 with fruit flies, parasitic wasps, flour beetles and frog eggs, along with bacteria, amoebae, plants and fungi.


title: Animals in space

text: On 11 April 1967, Argentina also launched the rat Belisario, atop a Yarará rocket, from Cordoba military range, which was recovered successfully. This flight was followed by a series of subsequent flights using rats. It is unclear if any Argentinean biological flights passed the 100 km limit of space.


title: Animals in space

text: The first animals in deep space, the first to circle the Moon, and the first two tortoises in space were launched on Zond 5 on 14 September 1968 by the Soviet Union. The Horsfield's tortoises were sent on a circumlunar voyage to the Moon along with wine flies, meal worms, and other biological specimens. These were the first inhabitants of Earth to travel around the Moon. The capsule overshot its terrestrial landing site but was successfully recovered at sea on 21 September. The animals survived but had some weight loss.


title: Animals in space

text: On 28 June 1969, the US launched the monkey Bonny, a macaque, on Biosatellite 3 in what was intended to have been a 30-day orbit around the Earth, with the monkey being fed by food pellets from a dispenser that he had been trained to operate. Bonny's health deteriorated rapidly and he was returned to Earth on 7 July, but died the next day after the Biosatellite capsule was recovered in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Animals in space

text: In total in the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. The actual number of dogs in space is smaller, because some dogs flew more than once.


title: Animals in space

text: On 23 December 1969, as part of the 'Operación Navidad' (Operation Christmas), Argentina launched Juan (a cai monkey, native of Argentina's Misiones Province) using a Canopus II rocket. It ascended 82 kilometers and then was recovered successfully. Later, on 1 February 1970 the experience was repeated with a female monkey of the same species using a X-1 Panther rocket. It reached a higher altitude than its predecessor, but it was lost after the capsule's parachute failed.


title: Animals in space

text: Two bullfrogs were launched on a one-way mission on the Orbiting Frog Otolith satellite on 9 November 1970, to understand more about space motion sickness.


title: Animals in space

text: Apollo 16, launched on 16 April 1972, carried nematodes. Apollo 17, launched on 7 December 1972, carried five pocket mice, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey, who stayed in the command module with astronaut Ronald Evans as it circled the Moon for six days. One of the mice died on the trip.


title: Animals in space

text: Skylab 3 (1973) carried pocket mice and the first fish in space (a mummichog), and the first spiders in space (garden spiders named Arabella and Anita). Mummichog were also flown by the U.S. on the Apollo–Soyuz joint mission, launched 15 July 1975.


title: Animals in space

text: The Soviets flew several Bion program missions which consisted of satellites with biological cargoes. On these launches they flew tortoises, rats, and mummichog. On Soyuz 20, launched 17 November 1975, tortoises set the duration record for an animal in space when they spent 90.5 days in space. Salyut 5 on 22 June 1976, carried tortoises and a fish (a zebra danio).


title: Animals in space

text: The Soviet Union sent eight monkeys into space in the 1980s on Bion flights. Bion flights also flew zebra danio, fruit flies, rats, stick insect eggs and the first newts in space.


title: Animals in space

text: In 1985, the U.S. sent two squirrel monkeys aboard Spacelab 3 on the Space Shuttle with 24 male albino rats and stick insect eggs.


title: Animals in space

text: Bion 7 (1985) had 10 newts ("Pleurodeles waltl") on board. The newts had part of their front limbs amputated, to study the rate of regeneration in space, knowledge to understand human recovery from space injuries.


title: Animals in space

text: After an experiment was lost in the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster, chicken embryos (fertilized eggs) were sent into space in an experiment on STS-29 in 1989. The experiment was designed for a student contest.


title: Animals in space

text: Four monkeys flew aboard the last Bion flights of the Soviet Union as well as frogs and fruit flies. The Foton program flights carried dormant brine shrimp ("Artemia franciscana"), newts, fruit flies, and sand desert beetles ("Trigonoscelis gigas").