Félicette

Review byiloveshoebill2026-11-07

A well known story and quite a sad one. Many animals had been sent into space before cats, namely fruit flies, monkies, chimpanzees, dogs, mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. In 1959, a colonel of the Brazilian Army planned to launch his cat, Flamengo into space, but this was scrapped after widespread protests from pet lovers. A rat named Hector became France's first space animal in 1961, shortly after the French rocket program began. Hector had electrode implants that could monitor brain activity and not just the general condition of the animal (breathing, heart rate, blood pressure etc). The French wanted to experiment with larger animals, and they chose the ones which they were most familiar with in terms of neurological study: cats. Fourteen female cats were bought for training, all of them unnamed to avoid growing attachment. Six were chosen as candidates for official space flight, and the winning option was C 341, Félicette's designation number. She was a very calm and relaxed baby. On October 18 1963, she set aboard the Véronique AGI 47. She was in space for about 13 minutes and was in a state of weightlessness for 5. The electrode implants in her skull were used to shock her and stimulate her brain. A small malfunction (im assuming) caused C 341 to receive more electrical shocks than originally intended. Despite it all, C 341 stayed strong and was able to make it back to Earth safely. She was dizzy but still able to recover. The first kitty in space managed to survive the whole trip, both the launch and the landing Originally, C 341 was given the name Félix, after the cartoon character, though it was later changed to the feminine version (Félicette). Félicette died two months later. Not from any health complications involving the flight, but because she was euthanized. Scientists wanted to study her brain. On the 24th of October, just 6 days after Félicette's adventure, another cat who trained alongside her was sent on a space operation. A problem in the rocket's mechanics caused it to launch at the wrong angle, and it eventually crashed after travelling off course. The cat died and didn't even manage to reach space. She didn't have a name. Only two out of fourteen cats have actually stepped inside of a rocket. Nine were euthanized after the experiments/training. One suffered health problems after the usage of electrodes and was removed from the project. She was given the name Scoubidou (a type of material, she had a braid made of one around her neck) and became the laboratory's mascot. The fate of the other two are unknown* In 2019, A 5 foot tall statue of Félicette was built at the International Space University in France. It was funded on Kickstarter and costed £40000. Official postage stamps of Félicette were created in former French colonies such as Chad, Comoros and Niger. There are multiple books about her, including a children's picture book called "Félicette: The Cat who Touched the Moon". An observatory named after her will be built at Toulouse 3 University (it was supposed to be done by 2021, i don't know what happened). Many people spread her tale and there's plenty of good videos about the topic. I think she deserves so much more. She deserved to live her kitty life normally. All fourteen of them do. How was data more important than their lives. I'm sorry, Félicette *this confuses me. according to félicette's wikipedia article, 14 cats were purchased. félicette, 2nd kitty, and scoubidou, that's 3. 9 euthanized, 1 fate unknown. it only adds up to 13. what happened to the other one? maybe only 13 were actually trained. i decided to just put "two unknown fates" for good measure. there's not much information about the six who were picked, either