Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

This cradle secured Able, a female rhesus monkey, in her biocapsule during the first flight to recover a primate from space. On May 28, 1959, an Army Ballistic Missile Agency Jupiter rocket at Cape Canaveral launched Able and Baker (a female squirrel monkey housed in a separate capsule) in its nose cone. Their biomedical condition was monitored throughout the flight as part of Department of Defense experiments to determine the effects of spaceflight on living animals. They reached an altitude of approximately 300 miles, a maximum speed of 10,000 mph, and were recovered alive some 1,500 miles downrange by U.S. Navy ships. The experiment provided important biomedical data for the human spaceflight program.

The capsule was built by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which transferred it to NASM in 1960. A preserved Able is displayed in the cradle.

 Display Status

This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type SPACECRAFT-Crewed-Test Vehicles Manufacturer U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Redstone Arsenal
 Dimensions 3-D: 22.9 × 21.6 × 78.7cm (9 × 8 1/2 × 31 in.)
 Materials Overall- Fiberglass
Pad- Foam Rubber
 Inventory Number A19600218000 Credit Line Transferred by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.