The monkeys hitchhiked a 16-minute ride to and from space in a capsule that is now on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
Monkeys Able and Baker were two tiny creatures with a big job.
"Their mission was influential in NASA eventually sending actual human astronauts into space," U.S. Space & Rocket Center Museum Education Director Joseph Vick said.
The monkeys hitchhiked a 16-minute ride to and from space in a capsule that is now on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
"They are the founding mothers of space flight," Vick said. "(That's) how I like to consider them."
The trip the monkeys took on May 28, 1959, changed space exploration forever. Their safe return proved humans could go to space.
Without them, the work of astronauts like Alan Shepard and Buzz Aldrin — and more recently, the crew to one day board Artemis and return to the moon — would not be possible.
"They were a major learning curve and opportunity for NASA at that time," Vick said.
It was a short-lived career for the pair.
Not long after their journey, Miss Able unfortunately died due to complications from a routine procedure.
Miss Baker, however, found Huntsville to be the best retirement spot.
"She is the longest lived, in-captivity squirrel monkey in the world," Vick said.Â
Miss Baker lived to be 27 years old. Typically, squirrel monkeys in captivity live to be about 20.
Miss Baker lived at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center from 1971 until her death in 1984 from kidney failure. During that time, the monkeynaut had thousands of visitors. Children especially loved her.
One of the many letters written to Miss Baker by a child.
"They would write and ask her questions like, 'What was it like to go into space?' and how cool it was that she did this and she inspired this young generation," Vick said.
Those letters now live on in the archives at the center.
Like those letters, Miss Baker's memory lives on, too. Many pass by her grave every single day on their way in to see all of the history made possible because of her work. Others stop to leave gifts and say thanks.
"To give an apple or a banana in her memory as a 'We still remember you, Miss Baker. We still remember that brave mission you took on May 28, 1959,'" Vick said.
Miss Baker's gravesite outside the U.S. Space & Rocket Center
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