Update: It's the last day of Thanksgiving weekend in the US, meaning most Ars staffers are navigating traffic as opposed to potential stories. With folks off for the holiday, we're resurfacing this odd bit of a space history from the archives—a look at the adventures of Sam the rhesus monkey, which began 60 years ago this week on December 4, 1959. This story first ran in February 2017, and it appears unchanged below.
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This is Sam. He lived in America.
Sam the rhesus monkey had already experienced one hell of a ride to the edge of space when he splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean—but his adventure didn’t end there. Although the dry, original accounts of Sam's 1959 flight offer scant detail about the journey, mainly confirming that NASA’s new Mercury capsule kept him alive, Bob Thompson tells a more colorful story.
Now in his early 90s, Thompson can still dominate a room with his commanding voice. And on a recent January morning, standing in his kitchen, Thompson did just that as he recounted the landing of Sam nearly six decades ago. In doing so, he offered a parable for NASA as it considers rescue operations for its Orion spacecraft at sea.
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