November 29

Primates had a good year in 1961. To get the ball rolling, on April 12, 1961, a primate of the family hominidae named Yuri Gagarin became the first one to venture in to outer space. Gagarin’s flight orbited the Earth exactly once. For Americans it was somewhat disheartening that not only did someone beat us in to outer space, but also it was a Russian who did it. Well, technically it was a Soviet that did it but let’s leave that to one side for the moment. Americans straightened their backs and put their shoulders to the wheel and on the 29th of November a Mercury Atlas 5 was rolled on to the tarmac at Cape Canaveral and the second primate took the historic step of entering into an Earth orbit. America’s champion was Enos, also a member of the hominidae family, though his friends call him a chimpanzee. Enos would dramatically improve on Gagarin’s record and orbit the Earth twice before he splashed down off the coast of Puerto Rico. It was not until February 20, 1962, when John Glenn, yet another primate, piloting Friendship 7, would once again improve primates’ orbital successes when he orbited Earth three times. And people say there is no such thing as progress.