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Enos the chimpanzee rockets into space...
Enos the chimpanzee rockets into space...
Item # 551143
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November 29, 1961
THE DETROIT NEWS, Michigan, November 29, 1961
* Enos the chimpanzee rockets into space
* 1st chimp to orbit the earth
* Mercury Atlas 5 spaceflight
This 40+ page newspaper has a great , bold front page headline: "CHIMP IN ORBIT" with subhead: "Enos Is Doing Tasks Perfectly" and a nice photo of the famous chimpanzee getting ready for takeoff.
Very nice headline for display as most newspaper had smaller and more discrete headlines regarding this historic event.
Also within this issue is the first report of Syracuse running back Ernie Davis winning the Heisman Trophy. This report is on the front page of the sport's section (page 25) and is a somewhat small, discrete report which can be seen in the photos/
Other news of the day throughout. A few small binding holes along the spine, minor margin wear, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: Enos (died November 4, 1962) was a chimpanzee that was launched into space.
Enos was purchased from the Miami Rare Bird Farm in April 3, 1960. He completed more than 1,250 hours of training for his mission at the University of Kentucky and Holloman Air Force Base. His training was more intense than that of Ham, the Americans' first chimp in space, because Enos would be exposed to weightlessness and a higher g for longer periods of time. His training included psychomotor training and aircraft flights.
Enos was selected to make the first orbital animal flight only three days before the launch. Two months before allowing a chimp to be launched into orbit, NASA had launched Mercury Atlas 4 on September 13, 1961, to conduct the same mission with a "crewman simulator" in the spacecraft. Enos flew into space on board Mercury Atlas 5 on November 29, 1961. He completed his first orbit in 1 hour, 28.5 minutes.
Enos was originally scheduled to complete three orbits, but was brought back after the second orbit because the spacecraft was not maintaining proper attitude. According to observers, Enos jumped for joy and ran around the deck of the recovery ship enthusiastically shaking the hands of his rescuers. Enos' flight was a full dress rehearsal for the next Mercury launch on February 20, 1962, which would make Lt. Colonel John Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth, after astronauts Alan Shepard, Jr. and Gus Grissom's successful suborbital space flights.
On November 4, 1962, Enos died of dysentery caused by shigellosis, which was resistant to antibiotics of the time. He had been under constant observation for two months before his death. Pathologists reported that they found no symptom that could be attributed or related to his space flight a year before.
Category: The 20th Century
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