HAPPY MEOW-NEVERSARY! To The First And Only Space Cat!
Forget monkeys. Forget hoomans. Forget janky Disney movies. 60 years ago this year, the French did a very French thing: they launched the first and only chatte into space (" chatte" is "cat" in French, you rube). Her name was Felicette. She was but a simple stray wandering the streets of Paris, smoking Gitanes and enjoying the occasional espresso dans les cafes . Everything changed when she was secretly recruited to serve her country by Cerma, the French space agency. Competing against 14 other cats for the honor, Madmoiselle Felicette charmed her space hoomans and was chosen to be shot into space. This was very courageous on her part, since in 1963, space travel was still quite treacherous. Several dogs and a monkey had already died during their rocket launches, so Felicitte knew there was no guarantee that she would return alive (much less in one piece). But Viva La France! Viva Le Chatte! She was up for the mission. Kaboom! Felicette, pictured above in her