Clue: Oh, I am proud to talk about this. My relatives are among the first to travel to space. Before humans actually went there, there was fear that they could not survive long periods of weightlessness. American and Russian scientists therefore utilized animals - mainly monkeys, chimps and dog. On June 11, 1948, a V-2 Blossom launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico carrying Albert I, a rhesus monkey. Undoubtedly, Albert I became the the hero of animal astronauts.Then, there were two Philippine monkeys, Patricia and Mike. They were enclosed in an Aerobee nose section at Holloman Air Force Base, Patricia in a seated position and Mike in a prone position to determine differences in the effects of rapid acceleration. They were fired 36 miles up at a speed of 2000 mph and became the first primates to reach such a high altitude. But then, these were just my distant relatives.I am especially proud of Ham who was trained at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He was a real chimp and has been to space three months earlier than the first American human, Alan Shepard. How's that for chimp technology?
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