Reality: This is Felicitte, the first cat to enter and safely return from space!
Ready for the vacuum system? Plasma cat cleaning! Its eye popping.
Scientists deliberately refrained from naming the animals to avoid attachment, though this detachment would not last.
No one would be able or want to detach from these cuties
That tabby looks like it is doing some marking!
Also, what’s with the head tabs?! Turns out they’re electrodes to monitor brain activity… from Wikipedia: “Nine electrodes had previously been implanted on her skull: two in the front sinus, one in the somatic area, two in the ventral hippocampal, two in the reticular area, and two in the association cortex. Two electrodes were glued to a foreleg so electrical impulses could be used to stimulate them during the flight.” lucky kitties!
C431 was the cat’s designation, named Felix then later Felicite. It survived sub orbital flight but was killed to study the impact on the brain afterwards. 9 of the 12 test cats were ‘euthanized’ afterwards… science can be such a polarised field of wonder and atrocity!
So cute they launched it into space to get it out of our planet and genetic pool.
