How a Monkey From Miami Helped Us Win the Space Race (And Where to Leave Her Bananas)

Miss Baker’s Historic 300-Mile Journey Above Earth

Before NASA sent humans to space, they sent a tiny Miami pet shop monkey. Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, blasted 300 miles up on a Jupiter rocket at 2:39 a.m. on May 28, 1959.

Her 16-minute journey made history when she and Miss Able became the first U.S. animals recovered alive from space. While Able died days later, Baker lived on as a celebrity, even gracing the cover of Life magazine.

She later moved to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama, where she “married” twice and got fan mail by the thousands. The grave of this space pioneer still stands at the Center’s entrance, where visitors often leave bananas to honor America’s smallest astronaut.

From Pet Shop to Space Pioneer

A tiny squirrel monkey named Miss Baker started out in a Miami pet shop in 1958. NASA picked her for spaceflight because she weighed just one pound and stayed calm during tests.

The space program needed animals to test how living things would handle rocket launches and weightlessness before sending humans up. Miss Baker’s small size and good behavior made her perfect for the job.

Training a Monkey for the Stars

Scientists at the Naval School of Aviation Medicine got Miss Baker ready for her mission. They built a special capsule called a biopack that fit her tiny body while tracking her heart rate and breathing.

The team paired her with Miss Able, a rhesus monkey who would join her on the Jupiter AM-18 rocket. Both monkeys spent weeks getting used to the tight spaces and medical tests they would face.

Blast Off in the Dark of Night

The Jupiter rocket carrying Miss Baker and Miss Able took off at 2:39 a.m. on May 28, 1959, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Workers at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama built the powerful rocket.

During launch, the monkeys felt forces 38 times stronger than normal Earth gravity, a crushing pressure that could have killed them if not properly secured.

Nine Minutes of Floating Freedom

Miss Baker’s flight lasted just 16 minutes from start to finish. The rocket shot 300 miles above Earth, much higher than any plane could fly.

For 9 minutes, both monkeys floated weightless in their capsules, the first American animals to feel this strange sensation.

After reaching its peak height, the capsule started falling back to Earth with recovery systems working perfectly.

Splashdown Success in the Atlantic

The capsule splashed down about 1,500 miles from the launch site near Puerto Rico. Sailors aboard the USS Kiowa quickly found and pulled the capsule from the Atlantic Ocean.

When they opened it, they found both Miss Baker and Miss Able alive and well. This marked the first time Americans sent living creatures to space and got them back safely.

America Falls in Love with a Space Monkey

Miss Baker became an instant celebrity after her flight.

Life magazine put her on the cover, and she got an award from the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Sadly, Miss Able died just four days after the flight when doctors tried to remove the monitoring electrodes that had tracked her vital signs during the mission.

Florida Years with Big George

After her space trip, Miss Baker lived at the Naval Aerospace Medical Center in Pensacola, Florida from 1959 to 1971. There she met her first monkey husband, “Big George,” and the two became a popular pair.

Scientists kept watching her for any lasting effects from her brief time in space. Year after year, she showed no health problems from her journey.

The Move to Rocket City

Miss Baker moved to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama in 1971, where she lived in a special habitat built just for her.

Visitors to the center could see the famous space monkey in person and learn about her historic flight.

She quickly became the star attraction at the museum, with many people coming just to see the tiny pioneer.

Fan Mail by the Thousands

Kids and space fans from across the country sent Miss Baker thousands of letters every year. The Space & Rocket Center gave her special handlers to care for her and manage her mail.

Staff members read letters to her and helped her “respond” to her many admirers. During special events marking her flight anniversary, Miss Baker would make appearances.

A Monkey Wedding with a Judge

After Big George died in 1979, Miss Baker found love again with Norman, another squirrel monkey at the Space & Rocket Center. The two “got married” in a ceremony that an Alabama District Court Judge actually led.

The wedding made newspapers across the country.

Miss Baker stayed healthy well into her 20s, much longer than most squirrel monkeys live in captivity.

Bananas on a Headstone

Miss Baker lived until November 29, 1984, reaching the incredible age of 27, a record for her species. The Space & Rocket Center buried her near the entrance where visitors pass by every day.

Her small grave features a headstone that tells of her historic flight.

To this day, visitors leave fresh bananas on her grave as a sign of respect for the tiny monkey who helped humans reach for the stars.

The tradition continues more than six decades after her 16-minute journey made space history.

Visiting U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Alabama

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center at 1 Tranquility Base in Huntsville celebrates Miss Baker, the squirrel monkey who survived spaceflight in 1959.

You’ll find her memorial headstone near the main entrance where visitors leave bananas as tribute. Regular admission costs $30 per person and the museum opens 10am-4pm daily during winter months.

Miss Baker lived at the center from 1971 until 1984, and 2024 marked the 65th anniversary of her historic Jupiter rocket flight.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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