Transcription: Before either side could risk launching a man into orbit, the effects of weightlessness on living tissue needed to be researched. Mammals, insects and even plants were launched on vehicles which were not yet man rated. Then on May 28th, 1959, NASA beat their rivals by being the first to recover living animals from deep space. After a suborbital lob to a height of 300 miles in a Jupiter nosecone, two monkeys, Abel and Baker, were successfully recovered from the ocean. Ahead lay the task of recovering craft, animals, and eventually men from Earth orbit.
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