posted 04-26-2017 10:57 PM               

Here is how Captain Norman Barr MD USN described the super cool space pioneer:

One of the monkeys — we gave him the name of Old Reliable — had far better reactions than the others. When placed in the capsule, he usually went right to sleep. He was never excited or disturbed by the confining metal tube or the array of straps and measuring devices attached to him. Because of his fine space personality, we chose Reliable to make the flight.

Thirty minutes before launch time the capsule was slipped into the nose cone of an Army Jupiter missile at Cape Canaveral. In the blockhouse we watched the dials that showed Reliable's reactions. The monkey was far less excited than we were. True to form, he went to sleep.

During the entire 8 minutes and 20 seconds of gravity-free flight, Reliable's responses did not once waver from complete normalcy. The astounding truth is that nothing happened. The first primate ever to arch through space for an appreciable period of time was hardly affected by the experience.

This is of immense significance to man. With a single exception, Reliable was experiencing the same physical conditions man will one day know in space, and we have every reason to believe that man's reactions will be essentially the same.

The exception, of course, is that man will think about what is going to happen to him. He will be much more excited than a squirrel monkey, and he will not be likely to take a nap during the 30 minutes before take-off! The first space man's knowledge of his role will surely increase the magnitude of his reactions, but I do not believe the increase will be intolerable. Thanks to Reliable, we can now say with virtual certainty that man is physically capable not only of rocket take-off but of sustained, gravity-free flight through space.

posted 04-27-2017 11:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by micropooz:
Old Reliable was also known as Gordo.

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On an unrelated note, although there were V-2 flights from White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico in 1948-1949 involving monkeys, it wasn't until the launch of Aerobee Rocket No. USAF-26 on 21 May 1952 from White Sands to 62-km altitude that two anesthetized monkeys, Pat and Mike, became the first primates to survive actual spaceflight conditions.

posted 04-28-2017 01:51 AM               

Up to this time the prime candidate for the flight was still called Old Reliable, but as the time for launch drew nearer he was assigned another pet name, phonetically much better suited to communications — Gordo.

posted 04-28-2017 08:42 AM               

Did Bergwin and Coleman give any references or quote or identify any sources for the use of Old Reliable's new name?

It's somewhat odd that the two period sources I used are each replete with multiple references to the name Old Reliable but not a single mention of the name Gordo.

posted 04-28-2017 08:49 AM               

The squirrel monkey, variously nicknamed "Little Old Reliable" and "Gordo," weighed less than a pound.

They said the monkey was named "Little Old Reliable" because it stood up so well under pre-launch testing.

posted 04-28-2017 03:03 PM               

Not only was "Old Reliable" a name used for "Gordo" the space monkey, but it was also the nickname of America's first large ballistic missile, the Redstone, developed and first flown by the U.S. Army's Wernher von Braun team during the early 1950s.

It became known as the "Father of American ballistic missiles" as the Redstone laid the groundwork for upcoming advances in U.S. missile and rocket technology.

In 1961 "Old Reliable" had boosted America's first two astronauts into space, and more than three years earlier, had orbited our nation's first satellite.