May 28 1959

From The Space Library

Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky of Harvard University named special assistant to the President for science and technology, replacing Dr. James R. Killian, Jr.

Army Jupiter IRBM launched a nose cone carrying two living passengers-Able, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South American squirrel monkey, to a 300-mile altitude, and both were recovered alive. The medical portions of the experiment were carried out by the Army Medical Service and Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Army Ordnance Missile Command, with the cooperation of the USN School of Aviation Medicine and the USAF School of Aviation Medicine.