A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Nov. 29, 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited Earth twice before returning. Enos became the first chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, which added to the attention for the mission.
NASA was a fairly new program, so sending Enos up was deemed necessary before orbiting an astronaut in a Mercury capsule.
The Deseret News followed successes of the budding space program with great interest and national pride.
But according to space historians, Enos never found too much fame or, presumably, fortune.
Per the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, Ham, his compatriot from the U.S. Air Force’s chimp training facility in New Mexico, overshadows him. Earlier in the year, Ham made a publicity splash after NASA stipulated his short, suborbital trip, which NASA required before the United States could put its first person in space.
Doctors had a lot of what turned out to be exaggerated concerns about the impact of spaceflight on the human body and psyche; engineers wanted to prove the safety of the Mercury capsule. Ham, who was visibly agitated by his rough flight and by the flashing press cameras afterward, became a celebrity.
According to historians, fruit flies were also sent in an orbit earlier in 1947, returning safely to New Mexico’s White Sands Proving Grounds.
Following Enos’ successful flight, John H. Glenn Jr. was selected to make the first U.S. manned orbital flight at Cape Canaveral, Nov. 29, 1961. And the rest is history.
Enos died in 1962 of a unique form of dysentery, not attributed to his space adventure
Here are some articles from Deseret News archives about Enos, other animals who have been part of the U.S. and world space programs, and some of the challenges that come with combining astronauts and other species in space:
“Online document: Today in history”
“Shuttle rats look fine, but jellyfish are acting weird”
“Monkey dies after returning from space mission for Russia”
“A first in space: the embalming of rats”
“7 astronauts, 48 rats blast off aboard Columbia”