Ever heard of Félicette?
No, you (probably) haven’t, because Félicette’s story is criminally under-reported, and Félicette is undervalued.
Félicette was the first cat to ever go to Space. And yet she is not in our history books. There is no day dedicated to her greatness. There is not even a statue to honour her great accomplishment.
One man wants to change that.
Matthew Serge Guy has created a Kickstarter campaign to fund a statue in honour of Félicette, the first cat in space.
Matthew’s after £40,000 (he’s already halfway there) to get animal sculptor Gill Parker to make a statue of Félicette, to sit in the cat’s hometown of Paris.
Who was Félicette and why did she go to space?
Félicette is a very sweet cat from Paris, France.
We’re not sure who her parents are, how old she is, or whether she was found as a stray or bought as a cat dealer, but we do know that she was chosen as one of 14 cats for a potential spaceflight mission – so that astronauts could assess how life could survive in Space before they went out there themselves.
Félicette ended up being chosen out of those fourteen cats (it’s not clear whether that’s because the other 13 cats put on too much weight, or that Félicette had a glorious disposition), and on 18 October 1963, she went to Space.
She was blasted off from a base in Algeria, reaching 157km, with five minutes of weightlessness. She was then parachuted back down to Earth.
Sadly, Félicette did not go on to achieve stardom. Instead she returned to the space lab for a few months of further study, and was put to sleep so researchers could further analyse her brain. Nice way to thank a cat for risking her life for you, scientists.
He says he was inspired to create the project by a tea towel.
‘Around 6 months ago whilst on the job, I came across a tea towel in the staff kitchen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cat who went to space,’ Matthew writes on Kickstarter. ‘There was no name for the cat on the towel, nor did it resemble Félicette.
‘It was illustrated in a constructivist style, which naturally led me to think it was the Russians who sent a cat to space.
‘After Googling it, I became fascinated with Félicette’s story, how it had been forgotten over the years, and (like the design of the tea towel) misattributed. It felt like something big should be done to right these wrongs.’
We agree. Every cat deserves recognition, but this is especially true in the case of the first cat in Space.
If you fancy contributing towards a statue that will honour one of the greatest cats of history, you can donate towards the campaign through Kickstarter. The Kickstarter ends Friday 17 November, so get a move on. Donate right meow.
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