Able, a seven-pound female rhesus monkey, and Baker, a one-pound female squirrel monkey, were fired 300 miles into space in the nose-cone of a Jupiter missile AM-18 from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 1959. They became the first living creatures to survive space flight.
The first monkey astronaut was Albert, a rhesus monkey, who on June 11, 1948 rode to over 63 km (39 miles) on a V2 rocket. Albert died of suffocation during the flight.
Albert was followed by Albert II who survived the V2 flight but died on impact on June 14, 1949. Albert II became the first monkey in space as his flight reached 134 km (83 miles). Albert III died at 35,000 feet (10.7 km) in an explosion of his V2 on September 16, 1949.
Albert IV on the last monkey V2 flight died on impact on December 8 that year.