"Animal Voices: At the Origins of Space Exploration"

This installation pays tribute to the animals who took part, often at the cost of their lives, in the early stages of space exploration. Each animal is presented with the emblematic equipment of its mission.

1957: Laïka

Among them is Laika, the famous dog sent into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. She is shown floating in space, wearing her anti-gravity suit. Officially, she was said to have survived several days at an altitude of 1,600 km. In reality, she died only a few hours after launch, a victim of a failure in the thermal regulation system. Her return to Earth had never been planned.

1961 : HAM

The journey continues with Ham, the first chimpanzee to complete a suborbital flight and return alive. He is displayed inside a replica of his capsule. In 1961, during the American mission Mercury-Redstone 2, he flew for 16 minutes, reaching an altitude of 250 km before safely splashing down in the Atlantic. His flight paved the way for the first American human spaceflight. Ham spent the rest of his life in a zoo, where he died at the age of 25.

1963 : Félicette

Finally, Félicette was the first cat sent into space by a French team in 1963. Equipped with brain electrodes, she enabled the live transmission of her neural activity throughout the flight. She reached an altitude of 157 km and survived her mission, but was euthanized two months later for research purposes.

Laïka : archival footage and fabrication

HAM : archival footage and fabrication

Félicette : archival footage and fabrication