Biocapsule, Primate
name: label: Manufacturer
content: U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Redstone Arsenal
notes: label: Summary
content: This biocapsule carried Able, a female rhesus monkey, during the first flight to recover a primate from space. On May 28, 1959, an Army Ballistic Missile Agency Jupiter rocket at Cape Canaveral launched Able and Baker (a female squirrel monkey housed in a separate capsule) in its nose cone. Their biomedical condition was monitored throughout the flight as part of Department of Defense experiments to determine the effects of spaceflight on living animals. They reached an altitude of approximately 300 miles, a maximum speed of 10,000 mph, and were recovered alive some 1,500 miles downrange by U.S. Navy ships. The flight provided important biomedical data for the human spaceflight program. The capsule was built by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which transferred it to NASM in 1960.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transferred from U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A19600217000
objectType: label: Type
content: SPACECRAFT-Crewed-Test Vehicles
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Components: Plastic
label: Materials
content: Overall - Aluminum
label: Materials
content: Wiring - Copper, Steel
label: Dimensions
content: 3-D (Body): 111.8 × 66 × 92.1cm (3 ft. 8 in. × 2 ft. 2 in. × 3 ft. 1/4 in.)