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Forum:	Early Space
Topic:	First cat in space, Felicette (1963)

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Dubbs: [B]The first cat in space, Félicette, was shot into space 54 years ago from a base in the Sahara desert by the Centre National d'études Spatiales (CNES). Now a British advertising executive is hoping to [URL=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cat-in-space-memorial-statue-felicette_us_59ea1b41e4b05b4f1c3af7c2?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009]erect a statue[/URL] in her honor in Paris, France. <BLOCKQUOTE>[i]Matthew Serge Guy, a creative director for Anomaly London, has [URL=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sergethew/a-statue-to-felicette-the-first-cat-in-space]started a Kickstarter campaign[/URL] to raise $52,439 for the statue. "Around 6 months ago whilst at work, I came across a tea towel in the staff kitchen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cat who went to space," Guy said in a release. "There was no name for the cat on the towel, nor did it resemble Félicette. "After Googling it, I became fascinated with Félicette's story, how it had been forgotten over the years, and (like the design of the tea towel) misattributed. It felt like something big should be done to right these wrongs."[/i]</BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sergethew/a-statue-to-felicette-the-first-cat-in-space/widget/video.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"> </iframe></center>[/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="sans-serif">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">Chris Dubbs</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">The first cat in space, Félicette, was shot into space 54 years ago from a base in the Sahara desert by the Centre National d'études Spatiales (CNES). Now a British advertising executive is hoping to <A HREF="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cat-in-space-memorial-statue-felicette_us_59ea1b41e4b05b4f1c3af7c2?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009" TARGET=_blank>erect a statue</A> in her honor in Paris, France. <BLOCKQUOTE><I>Matthew Serge Guy, a creative director for Anomaly London, has <A HREF="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sergethew/a-statue-to-felicette-the-first-cat-in-space" TARGET=_blank>started a Kickstarter campaign</A> to raise $52,439 for the statue.<P>"Around 6 months ago whilst at work, I came across a tea towel in the staff kitchen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cat who went to space," Guy said in a release. "There was no name for the cat on the towel, nor did it resemble Félicette.<P>"After Googling it, I became fascinated with Félicette's story, how it had been forgotten over the years, and (like the design of the tea towel) misattributed. It felt like something big should be done to right these wrongs."</I></BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sergethew/a-statue-to-felicette-the-first-cat-in-space/widget/video.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">

moorouge

The story was well reported in the UK press at the time though I think that she was called Felix in the coverage. Also, if my memory serves me, she was a stray taken from the streets of Paris.

Robert Pearlman

collectSPACE

First cat in space Félicette to get memorial statue after successful crowdfund
The first cat to launch into space and live to meow about it is getting her own monument — thanks to the crowdfunded support of more than 1,100 of her fans.
A campaign on the Kickstarter website on Friday (Nov. 17) successfully raised more than $57,000 to create "a proper memorial" for Félicette, a female black-and-white stray that lifted off on a French rocket for a sub-orbital spaceflight on Oct. 18, 1963. The funds will underwrite the sculpture and erection of a statue for Félicette in her home city of Paris.

garyd2831

So, while I think there is a bit of animal cruelty in the research on these cats by installing an electrode into their skulls (I know, not different than modern research with makeup, cancer drugs, etc.), what actual data was collected from the flight and three months after when they euthanized Felicette that would support and justify what they did?

Is there any historical research source other than Wikipedia? Couldn't they have at least looked at the research conducted by the United States and maybe the Soviet Union a few years earlier? A little late to the game for them.

Oh, and I fully support a monument and more information in regards to their contribution to what would support human spaceflight.

Robert Pearlman

I don't know of a source for papers on the topic, but from the summaries I have read, the feline experiments (which followed amphibian [frog] and rodent flights) were focused on the effects of weightlessness on the structure of the brain, an area of research not well covered by by earlier animal (or human) flights in the United States or Soviet Union.

The French identified this area of study as lacking and realized they had the tools (sounding rockets) by which to try to add to the scientific record.

Robert Pearlman

Matthew Serge Guy, who ran the 2017 Kickstarter to erect a monument to Félicette, has provided an update on the crowdfunding website.

British sculptor Gill Parker is creating the statue that will go on display at International Space University in Strasbourg.

Gill based this on historical photos of Félicette (and you could say her own cats modelled for it somewhat).
It's hard to truly represent how this looks in person with 2D photos, but I thought it looked fantastic.
We initially tried a few poses in a smaller scale, but settled on this dignified pose, looking to the stars above.
This will then be placed atop a globe, with Europe facing out at the viewer from front-on. This felt like a much more respectful way to speak to her out-of-this-world story.

yeknom-ecaps

Here is a cover canceled on the launch date at the launch site of Félicette.

ColinBurgess

There are details of Felicette's flight and the entire French bioprogram in the 2007 book "Animals in Space" that Chris Dubbs and I put together. In writing on this subject, we had the wonderful assistance of the then chief of the French program, Gerard Chatelier.

Robert Pearlman

Matthew Serge Guy, who ran the 2017 Kickstarter to erect a monument to Félicette, has provided another update on the crowdfunding website.

So, a bit of a surprise for you all - Félicette has now happily arrived at her Strasbourg home...
She arrived in Strasbourg at the end of last year, on the 18th of December. Just in time for a soft unveiling as part of International Space University's annual astronaut panel, which was an event already pre-arranged for that date.
As part of that evening's events, including a message from a former ISU student currently aboard the International Space Station, Félicette was unveiled to guests by: Lilla Merabet, Vice President of the GrandEst region; Astronauts Helen Sharman, Paolo Nespoli and Reinhold Ewald; And Philippe Jung, co-author of the academic paper "Felicette, the only space cat".

goose77

I think the statue is awesome!

Does anyone have more information about the Felicette postcard that CNES distributed? I've done some online research but haven't really found much as far as how many postcards were made, who they were sent to, and so forth.

ea757grrl

Viewing this as I am with a cat snoozing in my lap and another snoozing next to me, this is beautiful. May Felicette's memory live forever.

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