00:01Laika, the dog sent into space in 1957 by the Soviet Union, became the most famous for being the
00:10first living being to orbit the Earth.
00:13But in the animal world, she was not the only pioneer in space travel.
00:18Meet Felicet. She was a stray cat and was selected from among 14 to make an unimaginable journey to
00:29a feline.
00:31To be the first cat to go into space as part of the newly created French Space Program.
00:39On October 18, 1963, the rocket took off from the French base of Colombe-Becard, in the Algerian Sahara.
00:49Veronica AG-1.
00:52On board, the only passenger was Felicet, who was expecting a journey of about 10 minutes.
00:58At that time, it would reach a height of 157 kilometers, deep within the ionosphere.
01:05Felicet got there traveling at 6 times the speed of sound.
01:10From barely surviving on the streets of Paris, Felicet went on to experience, even if only for about 5 minutes,
01:17a feeling that the vast majority of humans will never experience.
01:22Floating weightlessly inside a rocket.
01:25However, before that, the cat had to go through an unpleasant and harsh training.
01:32similar to that of astronauts, which exposed her to great acceleration forces.
01:38The space experiment aimed to analyze the effects of weightlessness on living beings,
01:46and therefore, know what to expect from astronauts on future missions.
01:52The mission was a success, and at least it had a better ending than that of the Russian dog Laika.
01:59who died from overheating in her spacecraft hours after launch.
02:05Felicet, on the other hand, returned safely to land,
02:09after being ejected from the rocket in a small capsule equipped with a parachute.
02:15But although the mission returned safely, it wasn't a happy ending for the cat.
02:21since she would later be sacrificed, dissected,
02:26in order to scientifically analyze the effects of the space mission on his body.
02:33Felicet's feat allowed the French to compete,
02:37even if only briefly, with the Soviet Union and the United States in the space race.
02:43France had created the world's third civilian space agency,
02:48after the American and Soviet ones.
02:56In 2017, thanks to a fundraising campaign,
03:01Finally, a bronze statue was built in honor of Felicet.
03:06at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
03:13As a tribute to the first and only cat to go into space and return safely.
03:21And what do you think?
03:24Is it okay to use animals for scientific experiments?
03:32I invite you to write your opinion below in the comments.
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03:45Until next time.
