Before astronauts, there were monkeynauts. In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the bizarre and often tragic history of the first primates sent to space—Albert I, II, III, and IV.
The U.S. was determined to test the limits of space travel, and what better way than by strapping a rhesus macaque to a rocket? Unfortunately for the Alberts, early spaceflight engineering wasn’t exactly foolproof (seriously, how hard is it to pack a working parachute?!). From launch failures to unexpected explosions, these monkeys became unwilling pioneers in the quest to understand weightlessness, high-altitude survival, and just how many things can go wrong in a single mission.
Join us as we unpack the history, science, and ethics of these doomed primate test pilots. If you love space history, weird animal experiments, and questioning past scientific decisions, this episode is for you!
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