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Mike

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description Mike Overview

Mike was a cynomolgus monkey who participated in a United States aerospace research flight in 1952. He was launched alongside another monkey named Patricia aboard an Aerobee rocket to study the effects of high-altitude flight. The mission was a short suborbital flight designed to test biomedical instrumentation and gather data on the physiological impacts of acceleration. Both animals survived the flight, marking an early successful primate recovery for the U.S.

space program.

help Mike FAQ

When did the monkey Mike fly on an Aerobee rocket?

Mike flew on May 22, 1952, from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He was launched in an Aerobee nose section with another Philippine monkey named Patricia. [NASA history](https://www.nasa.gov/history/a-brief-history-of-animals-in-space/)

Who flew with Mike on the 1952 research flight?

Mike flew alongside Patricia, another cynomolgus or Philippine macaque used in the same experiment. The mission was a short suborbital flight rather than an orbital mission around Earth.

What was Mike's flight designed to study?

The Aerobee flight studied how primates responded to high-altitude flight and reduced-gravity conditions. It was part of the United States' biological research before human spaceflight programmes such as Project Mercury.

How was Mike's mission different from Albert II's flight?

Albert II flew in a V-2 rocket in 1949, while Mike flew in an Aerobee in 1952. Both missions used monkeys to study spaceflight risks, but they belonged to different phases of early United States rocket research.

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