Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

TIME LINE

Rhesus monkey Albert II becomes first creature to experience zero gravity on board a rocket.

Air Force flies planes in parabolas to mimic zero G and study its effects on chimps, cats, humans.

Soviet dog Laika orbits Earth, dies in space.

Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka are first to return alive from orbit.

Astrochimp Ham survives a suborbital flight in a Mercury space capsule.

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, and first human to orbit Earth.

Alan Shepard becomes first American in space.

Astrochimp Enos orbits Earth.

John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth.

Air Force tests Gemini diets and “restricted bathing” regimens in space cabin simulators.

Alexei Leonov becomes first astronaut to spacewalk outside spacecraft.

Gemini III “corned beef sandwich incident.”

Gemini IV: Ed White becomes NASA’s first spacewalker.

Gemini VII: two men, two weeks, no bath.

Apollo 9: Rusty Schweickart battles space motion sickness.

Apollo 11: first humans set foot on the moon.

Apollo 17: first scientist in space.

Skylab U.S. space station missions; space showers prove untenable.

Salyut Soviet space station missions.

First U.S. female astronaut candidate.

First Space Shuttle launch.

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Mir.

First International Space Station mission.

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.