"The Cats of Peace is a complementary series to the nearby Dogs of War caches. It highlights just a few of the famous cats who achieved some degree of popularity either in their own right or by association with someone famous."
Félicette - a stray cat is plucked from the streets of Paris and trained to be an astronaut - the first cat known to have survived a trip to space.
In the early '60s, France's Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA) chose more than a dozen cats to complete a rigorous space training program. The astrocats-in-training were subjected to compression chambers, small containers, and a centrifuge, all in an effort to find the feline that was the best fit for space. Félicette proved herself worthy, and in October 1963, she was strapped into a container inside a Véronique rocket and launched from a base in the Sahara desert. She flew approximately 160km above the Earth and spent several minutes in zero gravity, all while scientists monitored her progress via electrodes they had implanted in her brain.
The capsule then detached from the rocket and she parachuted safely to the ground. The whole trip lasted just 15 minutes.
Although Félicette returned to Earth to live out the rest of her days, sadly scientists euthanised her a few months later so they could study the impact of space travel on her brain. (The first dog in space, Russia's Laika, actually died while in space!)
Sometimes being famous really isn't good for one's health !
