On October 18th, 1963, the cat Félicette was sent to the space

On October 18th, 1963, the cat Félicette was sent to the space

More than 50 years ago, a named cat Félicette took off for brief moment in the space. Questioned by Sciences and Future, the scientist lo... 09:16

More than 50 years ago, a named cat Félicette took off for brief moment in the space. Questioned by Sciences and Future, the scientist loaded his follow-up remembers.

Félicette was not a cat as the others: on October 18th, 1963 and after a training intended to accustom him to the rumours and to the accelerations, she took off since the base of Hammaguir, in Sahara aboard a rocket Véronique whose speed varies between Mach 5 and 6. "The general practitioner Grandpierre, the director of the Cerma (Center of education and searches for aeronautical medicine of the Air Force) had asked me to study the effects of the non-gravity on the vigilance of an awake mammal", tells Sciences and Future Doctor Chatelier, former master of searches for the health service of the armies.

Electrodes to watch in real time the cerebral activity of the cat

The animal reached the 157 kilometer height becoming the first cat astronaut of the world. " At the end of propulsion, there was a separation of the head and the point of the rocket which contained the animal. This one then took a parabolic trajectory which allowed to put the cat in weightlessness ", remembers Doctor Chatelier. Electrodes, implanted in the brain of Félicette allowed to transmit his intellectual activity on the ground by telemetry during all the duration of the flight. Then, at the end of a few minutes, a parachute spread to weaken the fall of the point of return on dry land.

Discovered by " the central inhibition "

During this experience, the researchers noticed that in absence of sensory reference, the vigilance of the cat decreased little by little. Only in this capsule, the brain of the animal set in sleep mode: "we noted several moments when Félicette began napping and we baptized this phenomenon the central inhibition", pursues the former researcher. Does this trance also affect the astronauts? "We believed it but not, explains the man. The sensory inhibition did not occur during the human flights: the astronauts have other sensory afférences because they have gestures to be realized and they are not alone. But if they were isolated, things would be maybe different".

Félicette, as for her, returned alive and healthy on Earth. The animal lived for a long time in the shade of Laïka, the dog of the Soviet spatial program which was the first living being to have been placed in orbit in 1957. But she since got back her pioneer's place of the space.