Enos became the first animal to orbit Earth in an American vessel in 1961 and his trip paved the way for further space exploration.
In the 1960s , space was the ultimate frontier . No pursuit was more honorable than research that vast expanse of star , orbiting the satellite or rocketing through the dangers of the unsung to implant a celebratory flag on Earth ’s biggest orbiter . But it was a Pan troglodytes , not a human being , who first braved a trip to space and back in an American vessel .
On November 29 , 1961 , Enos the chimpanzee becamethe 2nd chimp in blank , and the first chimp to orbit the Earth . Enos — which means “ military man ” in Hebrew — was one of an elect group of chimps rail as a part of Project Mercury . From 1959–1963 , Project Mercury focused on the goal of arrange a human in orbit , and then bringing that man safely back to Earth .
Enos undergo a year and a one-half of breeding , a total of 1,250 hours , which include things like simple oddity problems ( such as picking a shape that was not like the other two shapes presented ) . The ultimate goal of the labor was to set if animal idea and bodies would be able to work while orbit Earth .
Project Mercury ’s knocker debate that direct Enos would be a waste material , since the Soviet Union had already beat the United States to it by a couple of months — and with a human to kick — when Yuri Gagarin orb the earth without experience electronegative side burden .
Still , NASA thought it best to continue as contrive . Whatdidn’tgo as design was Enos ’ mere oddity trouble . During training , Enosreceived a shock on the bottom of his feetwhenever he picked an incorrect response . He completed the tasks with relative ease on Earth , but in space , the first task malfunction and the right solvent was n’t available to be chosen . Enos was shocked repeatedly while he tried desperately to piece the correct answer — a total of 76 times .
After all was say and done , however , Enos ’ trip had a happy ending . He landed safely in the amnionic fluid of Bermuda , and the research from his flight was used in the first successfulhumanAmerican mission to revolve the Earth three months later .
