The grave of Miss Baker – the famous space traveler (10 photos)

Bananas and other treats are often left for the first US monkey to survive a space launch.





The US space program has previously managed to recover fruit flies after suborbital flights, but there have been problems with higher primates.



The program acquired Miss Baker along with dozens of other monkeys from a Miami pet store. She quickly stood out from her fellow monkeys, surviving confinement, electrodes, and many other tests. Eventually, she and a larger rhesus macaque known as Miss Able were selected to be sent into space.





The monkeys were fitted with spacewalk caps and jackets and placed in metal monitoring capsules that kept them confined to a confined space. Electrodes were surgically inserted into the animals. Then, early in the morning of May 28, 1959, the duo were loaded into a Jupiter rocket and launched to an altitude of 300 miles (480 kilometers). The flight lasted just 16 minutes, more than half of which was weightlessness, and the rocket landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.



Both monkeys were removed from the capsule. But, alas, Miss Able died four days later, unable to withstand the strong anesthesia when surgeons tried to remove her electrodes. Both animals made the cover of Life magazine, and Baker's star rose. Hundreds of letters poured in from fans, and she was assured of a well-fed, happy life, during which she was even "married." Twice, in fact.



Miss Baker lived at the Naval Aerospace Medical Center in Pensacola, Florida, until 1971. In 1962, Pensacola caretakers performed a wedding ceremony for Miss Baker and Big George, who died on January 8, 1979. Three months later, Miss Baker "married" again. The space celebrity's chosen one was Norman, and the ceremony was performed by Alabama District Court Judge Dan McCoy. However, the bride categorically refused to wear a veil and a white wedding dress, demonstrating her willful nature.



Ms. Baker died of kidney disease in 1984 at the age of 27, having the distinction of being the longest-lived squirrel monkey in history.



She was buried at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama, with a tombstone next to her first "husband," Big George.



The grave is located right next to the entrance to the main building. Fans and admirers of the little astronaut still come and leave bananas and other treats on her tombstone. Miss Able's body is on display in her flight capsule at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.