In 1963, France sent a stray cat 154 km into space; Félicette survived the flight, was euthanized for research, and honoured with a bronze statue

In 1963, France sent a Parisian stray cat 154 km into space, making Félicette the first and only cat to travel beyond Earth; decades later, a bronze statue was unveiled in her honor. Launched on October 18, 1963, aboard a French Véronique rocket, Félicette completed a short suborbital mission and returned safely to Earth by parachute. In 2020, her extraordinary place in space history was finally commemorated with a bronze statue at the International Space University in France.

Her historic journey lasted only a few minutes, but Félicette's story remains one of the most unusual chapters in the early history of space exploration.

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What happened to Félicette after her spaceflight?

Félicette returned safely to Earth, but her story took a tragic turn. About two months after her spaceflight, she was euthanized so scientists could study how the journey had affected her body.

The subsequent examination did not reveal significant useful information, although researchers were able to establish that brain activity could be monitored remotely.

Her fate illustrates how differently animal experiments were viewed during the early decades of space exploration.

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In 1963, why did France send a cat into space?

During the early years of the Space Race, scientists wanted to learn what happened to living organisms during spaceflight. The Soviet Union famously sent dogs, while the United States used monkeys and chimpanzees in several missions.

France took a different approach and selected cats for its research program. In 1961, staff at Cerma, the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique, gathered 14 stray cats as potential candidates for a space mission. The animals underwent training designed to prepare them for the experience of launch and weightlessness.

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Scientists deliberately gave the cats numbers rather than names because they did not want researchers to become emotionally attached to them. One cat, identified as C341, was eventually selected.

In 1963, Félicette was launched 154 km above Earth

On October 18, 1963, C341 was placed aboard a French Véronique liquid-fuelled rocket and launched from a facility in the Algerian Sahara. The rocket carried her to an altitude of approximately 154 km (95.7 miles), taking the cat into space on a short suborbital flight.

Félicette experienced approximately 9.5 g during the journey, according to Sky at Night Magazine. After spending around five minutes in space, her capsule began its descent and parachutes brought her safely back to Earth.vFélicette survived the flight and was recovered unharmed.

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In 1963, how did C341 become Félicette?

After the mission, the French press began referring to the cat as Felix, after the famous cartoon character. There was just one problem: the space traveler was female. After Cerma confirmed her sex, the name was changed to Félicette. The name eventually became synonymous with France's historic space cat.

Her achievement was remarkable because she remains the first and only cat known to have traveled into space.

Félicette remains the only cat to travel into space

More than 60 years after her flight, Félicette's place in space history remains unique. She spent only a few minutes in space, but her mission represented an important moment in the early effort to understand how living organisms respond to spaceflight.

From an unnamed stray identified only as C341 to Félicette, the first and only cat to travel into space, her story has become one of the most fascinating and bittersweet episodes of the Space Race.