When we think about primates in space, we usually think of Ham, the monkey that preceded NASA’s Mercury astronauts on a suborbital Redstone mission. But more than a decade before this notable primate flight there were a series of monkeys named Albert who were also launched to gather data about the effects of spaceflight on men. They flew as part of Project Hermes, a program that saw recovered V-2s launched in the United States, and they are among the often overlooked heroes of the early space age.

The first V-2 Blossom to carry a monkey (missile 37) launched on June 11, 1948 with Albert I on board. The rocket reached a peak altitude of 39 miles before its ascent was cut off by a failed valve. Though the rocket didn’t explode, Albert I likely didn’t make it to apogee. He’s thought to have succumbed to breathing problems in his cramped cabin. But he would have died anyways; the parachute system also failed.

A second V-2 Blossom (missile 47) with another rhesus monkey launched on June 14, 1949. Albert II fared slightly better than his predecessor. He survived launch to reach an apogee of 83 miles, but he didn’t survive the landing. This time, the capsule’s parachutes failed to open; the monkey died on impact. A silver lining, at least for the humans running the test, was that biomedical data from Albert II was transmitted successfully to the ground throughout the flight.
Two more rhesus monkeys named Albert III and Albert IV also died on their V-2 Blossom flights. (1)

How important is the thing you search for?
How ready are you for it?
Are you strong enough to test your own theory?
Or are you a coward who just wants to test it on others?

Sure science needs experiments.
Does it mean that it needs death?
Sure we need tests of new spacecrafts.
Sure we need tests of new medicine.
But there was a time when pioneers of aircrafts tested their own new creations and risked their own lives.
There was a time when scientists tested radioactive material on their own self.

Let’s re-examine the fundamental axioms of our science.
Most “primitive” civilizations had almost the same medicine as we do (we literally use the same herbs in many occasions) and yet they did not kill millions of other beings in the process of discovering them.
Samans and wizards in most “primitive” civilizations used to travel to more vast distances only with the mind. (yes, Princeton has validated that – see “Non local consciousness” article at Blogger)

How progressed are we really?
How men are we really?
Trust your ideas.
Test them your self.
Or else you will always be lesser then a monkey…