Able was a seven-pound rhesus monkey; her companion Baker was a one-pound female squirrel monkey. Together, the two were primate pioneers, the first simians in space. Two years before, Russia had sent up the first animal into orbit: Moscow’s mutt was named Laika, and although hers was to be a one-way mission, she opened the door for other such experiments. Able and Baker went up and successfully returned in the summer of 1959. On the heels of their success NASA prepared Sam, another rhesus monkey.

On this day, December 4, in 1959, Sam, a product of the School of Aviation Medicine (whose initials made up his name), went up and came down aboard the Little Joe 2 spacecraft. Sam’s job was to remain alive in a test of the craft’s emergency escape system.

Sam had a mate named, appropriately enough, Miss Sam, who also launched into the wild blue yonder a month after him. Upon her safe return, NASA gave time for the two to reunite. One scientist remarked the monkey amorousness was “almost human.”