The Astrochimps by Dawn Cusick

Author:Dawn Cusick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2024-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

To Chimp or Not to Chimp

Before America could beat the Soviets to the Moon, they had to get human astronauts into Earth’s orbit. And before they did that, NASA needed an astrochimp to test-drive the technology.

NASA’s leader, James Webb, warned overeager Americans: “If we are to have our spectacular successes … with even larger and ever more complex rockets, the early test flights, unmanned, of course, will involve spectacular failures.”

But America had lost patience with failures and delays. If NASA skipped the astrochimp trip, the United States could surpass the Soviets. Soon, a five-way battle circled the astrochimps. Astronauts, politicians, engineers, physicians, and everyday people had opinions.

The Mercury Seven astronauts campaigned to skip the chimp trip. They were well trained and ready to go. It still hurt that the Soviets beat them to space by twenty-three days. Ham’s First-American-in-Space title didn’t help. The last thing the astronauts wanted was another chimpanzee stealing their thunder.

Was NASA too cautious? Or did it need an astrochimp to test-drive its rockets and space math? The answer depended on whom you asked. The engineers wanted technical details, while doctors and psychologists needed medical information.

Five weeks after the Soviet’s seventeen-orbit trip, NASA launched Mercury-Atlas 4 on a one-orbit trip around Earth. The flight had a mechanical astronaut on board, instead of a chimp or a human. For engineers, the “canned man” was “really much better than a live animal,” said Max Faget. The pressurized box turned oxygen and carbon into CO2 and water, and released heat, just like humans and chimps do when breathing. The canned man also collected data.

Demands to cancel the astrochimp flight spiked like a fever. People implored NASA to launch John Glenn instead. Hadn’t the Mercury-Atlas 4 mission proven America ready? The rocket didn’t explode at liftoff. The spacecraft circled Earth and returned home, as planned. What else could NASA want?

Chief of the Mercury medical team, Lieutenant Colonel Stanley White, disagreed, arguing it would be “extremely hazardous” to skip the chimpanzee flight. “The MA-5 mission is more than a matter of just checking the spacecraft,” he reminded everyone. Simply, doctors and psychologists did not know how orbital space would affect humans.

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