The Grave NASA Space Monkey Miss Barker

Located in this grove of trees at the entrance of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, this grave is the final resting place of the first monkey sent into space by NASA and recovered alive after the journey. The two-year-old spider monkey named Miss Baker was launched into space in a Jupiter rocket on May 28, 1959, alongside Miss Able, a rhesus macaque. The monkeys' flight lasted for sixteen minutes, after which they were successfully recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. While Miss Able died during surgery a few days later, Miss Baker went on to enjoy her newfound celebrity status. She lived at the museum until she died at the age of 27 in 1984, making her the longest-living spider monkey on record.

Throughout the “Space Race” during the 1950’s, both the United States and USSR attempted multiple launches into space using dogs, mice, fruit flies, and monkeys. These experimental space trips were designed to gather data about the physical responses of mammals to weightlessness in order to pave the way for possible future space trips manned by humans. Notable cases, such as the launching of Laika the dog by the USSR in 1957, proved that even larger mammals seemed capable of surviving lift-off, weightlessness, and orbit. However, up until 1959, all of the animals who had reached space flight had died afterwards- typically during the difficult process of landing.

NASA set out to change this in 1959 when they purchased a group of 25 squirrel monkeys from a pet shop in Miami, Florida. They put the monkeys through series of tests in order to determine their ability to endure long periods of confinement in tight quarters, as well as invasive electrodes being placed on their bodies. Out of the last group, one two-year-old female monkey displayed remarkable docility and intelligence. Initially nicknamed “TLC” by handlers for her loving nature, she was chosen by NASA and transported to the Cape Canaveral launch site where scientists dubbed her “Miss Baker”.

There, alongside a rhesus macaque monkey named “Miss Able”, Miss Baker was prepped for space flight. At 2:39 in the morning on May 28, 1959, Miss Baker and Miss Able were launched in a Jupiter rocket together to an altitude of 300 miles- roughly to the point where the space shuttle is located today. Also on the rocket were test tubes containing fungi, bacteria, sea urchin eggs, sperm, and onions. The trip lasted for about 16 minutes, nine of which the monkeys were weightless. The rocket landed 1,500 miles downrange in the Atlantic near Puerto Rico. The flight’s two passengers were recovered unharmed by the USS Kiowa.

Miss Baker and Miss Able’s flight garnered widespread media attention. Both appeared on the June 15, 1959 cover of Life magazine. Sadly, four days after the rocket landed, Miss Able died due to an allergic reaction to anesthesia during an operation to remove her electrodes. Her body was later preserved and displayed within her space capsule in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Miss Baker was awarded the Medal of Honor and Certificate of Merit by the ASPCA that year for “blazing the trail for human beings who will follow”. The miniscule, one-pound astronaut quickly became a celebrity among U.S. schoolchildren in particular, who wrote her an estimated 150 letters a day in the months after her landing.

Miss Baker was moved to a habitat in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in 1971. During her time there, she enjoyed entertaining visitors and being treated to her favorite meal- strawberry gelatin with bananas. She also lived through three “marriages” to male spider monkeys brought in to keep her company. In 1984, Miss Baker died at the age of 27- earning the title of the longest-living spider monkey on record. She was buried next to George, her first “husband”, in a small plot outside of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s entrance. Today, her headstone is often adorned with bananas left by visitors to the Center.

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