Late in 1952 the U.S. Air Force launched an Aerobee. The Aerobee was a rocket capable of reaching altitudes between fifty-five and seventyfive miles. The Aerobee had several purposes. Its most publicized goal was to gather weather data by releasing an inflatable nylon baloon called the Sphere, which held electronic equipment to send data back to ground station receivers. In its nose, the Aerobee also contained two capsules, one holding two mice and one holding two monkeys. At the crest of the rocket's path, which occurred at a forty miles above ground level, the nose capsule was ejected and the animals parachuted to earth.

One of the points of the animal experiments was to determine a body's tolerance of weightlessness. Cameras mounted in the rocket filmed the animals during a period of zero gravity so that they could be observed floating in their...