Listen to Space Ambassador Anu Ojha exploring the history of animals in space
31. 01. 11
50 years ago today NASA sent the first chimpanzee into space. Ham the "Astrochimp" returned to earth safely after a flight lasting just over 16 minutes.
It was a crucial moment in attempts by the US to catch up with the Soviets in the space race.
Anu Ojha from the National Space Centre in Leicester explains the history of animals in space, in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Listen to the interview.
News archive Previous stories
- May 2012
- JUICE is Europe’s next large science mission (04. 05. 12)
- Loughborough College launches Space Engineering A-level programme (08. 05. 12)
- Balloons and paradoxes (09. 05. 12)
- The Transit of Venus (14. 05. 12)
- ESERO-UK visit to Jodrell Bank (16. 05. 12)
- The ESA summer workshop for teachers 2012 (18. 05. 12)
- The search is on for UK’s youngest innovators (18. 05. 12)
- April 2012
- Royal Observatory telescope to be relocated to Canterbury (04. 04. 12)
- NASA Mars Orbiter catches tornado in action (10. 04. 12)
- International Day of Human Space Flight (12. 04. 12)
- Earth Day – huge for us but insignificant in the universe? (19. 04. 12)
- Mission-X 2012: mission accomplished (20. 04. 12)
- UK and Japan commit to greater collaboration on space (25. 04. 12)
- Asteroid mining – expensive pie in the sky? (30. 04. 12)
- March 2012
- Titan and Prometheus dwarfed by giant Saturn (01. 03. 12)
- Meteor fireball seen across the UK (05. 03. 12)
- ESERO-UK Editorial in ASE School Science Review (08. 03. 12)
- Photographing the International Space Station (ISS) (08. 03. 12)
- We Have Lift Off! (14. 03. 12)
- How to see five planets in one night over the UK (14. 03. 12)
- Angry Birds in Space (15. 03. 12)
- ‘Can-do’ Kids meet at Royal Observatory (21. 03. 12)
- Ashton Kutcher to fly in space! (22. 03. 12)
- February 2012
- Help Astronomers Measure the Solar System! (02. 02. 12)
- Is the Earth getting lighter? (02. 02. 12)
- New super-Earth planet found that could support life (02. 02. 12)
- So, you want a career in space? (09. 02. 12)
- VLT Takes Most Detailed Infrared Image of the Carina Nebula (10. 02. 12)
- Vega rocket launched (13. 02. 12)
- Space Jumper (14. 02. 12)
- A Swiss satellite to clean up space (17. 02. 12)
- NASA's Picture of the Future of Human Spaceflight (20. 02. 12)
- Allan’s blog: 'Space for education; education for space' (20. 02. 12)
- Tom’s blog: Space Academy Symposium (23. 02. 12)
- January 2012
- Ticks the Box: A teacher training day for primary teachers (18. 01. 12)
- European finalists selected in Space Lab student competition (19. 01. 12)
- UK Space Agency’s resident space debris expert on Blue Peter (20. 01. 12)
- Space Day - what it is like to live, eat and work in space (23. 01. 12)
- A Moon-base by 2020? (27. 01. 12)
- Watch online: Earth from Space – special edition (30. 01. 12)
- November 2011
- Explorers of the Universe photographic exhibition (02. 11. 11)
- Free CPD for secondary teachers - using remote telescopes (02. 11. 11)
- Glamorgan student helps discover unique new comet (07. 11. 11)
- Cassini Scientist for a Day Competition (08. 11. 11)
- National Space Academy looking to recruit Lead Educators (09. 11. 11)
- ESA joins YouTube Space Lab student space competition (09. 11. 11)
- Apply now for ESA / GTTP training workshop (21. 11. 11)
- National Space Academy Vacancy - Regional Project Manager (23. 11. 11)
- Mission X: Train like an Astronaut (30. 11. 11)
- October 2011
- Teams selected for the 2012 CanSat competition (30. 10. 11)
- September 2011
- Cardiff student discovers two new asteroids (01. 09. 11)
- Space junk becoming a 'critical problem' (01. 09. 11)
- UK Space Design Competition (02. 09. 11)
- New internet tool allows the public to explore the Solar System (05. 09. 11)
- Glyncoed girls achieve great things in their GCSE Astronomy exams (06. 09. 11)
- LRO probe photographs Moon landing sites in high detail (07. 09. 11)
- Space Technology crosses over to the household (07. 09. 11)
- ESERO-UK is recruiting a Teacher Fellow (08. 09. 11)
- Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 - beautiful slideshow of winning images (09. 09. 11)
- Your chance to view a supernova explosion (09. 09. 11)
- Chance of life on other planets increases with latest exoplanet findings from HARPS (13. 09. 11)
- August 2011
- ESERO-UK Space Education Day - Speaker Presentations now available online (03. 08. 11)
- New theory about the lunar dichotomy hints at Earth having two moons (04. 08. 11)
- Do you want to take part in a Vesta Fiesta? (04. 08. 11)
- New evidence of flowing water found on Mars (05. 08. 11)
- Mars' northern polar regions in transition (08. 08. 11)
- Mars rover nears the final destination of its mission (10. 08. 11)
- Space for All funding scheme launched for 2011/12 (15. 08. 11)
- Space Physiology and Health MSc - King's College London offers a unique space healthcare degree (16. 08. 11)
- SETI's hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence set to continue thanks to funds from benefactors (17. 08. 11)
- ESA provides first 3D video transmission live from space (18. 08. 11)
- Physics A-level entrants rise for the fifth consecutive year (19. 08. 11)
- Global collaboration enables Antarctic Ice Flow to be accurately mapped for the first ever time (23. 08. 11)
- Alpbach students reach for the stars (24. 08. 11)
- New astronomy degree course featured in Astronomy Now magazine (24. 08. 11)
- Curious about a career in space? Visit ESA at one of these careers fairs... (26. 08. 11)
- Irish stargazers on the hunt for a meteor (31. 08. 11)
- July 2011
- Teacher training in North Wales (01. 07. 11)
- Explore the dynamic high-energy Universe - a competition for secondary students (05. 07. 11)
- Slideshow of images celebrating NASA's space shuttles (07. 07. 11)
- Hubble Space Telescope : one in a million (08. 07. 11)
- Interactive graphic traces the history of human spaceflight across the world (08. 07. 11)
- Celebrating 10 years of ESA's Artemis satellite (12. 07. 11)
- Gagarin statue and exhibition unveiled in London (14. 07. 11)
- Historic final spacewalk images (14. 07. 11)
- Missed the final Shuttle launch? Watch the video here (15. 07. 11)
- Test your shuttle knowledge (19. 07. 11)
- Watch live video of the final shuttle landing (20. 07. 11)
- Video animation on Mars rovers (20. 07. 11)
- RadioAstron - the largest radio telescope - begins its orbit (25. 07. 11)
- Solar Dynamics Observatory finds 'Man in the Sun' (26. 07. 11)
- Alma radio telescope facility opens (29. 07. 11)
- June 2011
- Fly Your Thesis! 2011 campaign - four more flights launched (06. 06. 11)
- Turbulent Sun fires off a huge solar flare - spectacular video captures the event (07. 06. 11)
- Draw the Universe - get your name on a Galileo Programme Satellite (08. 06. 11)
- Help ESA to name Europe's next mission to the Space Station (08. 06. 11)
- Work with astronauts and NASA leaders for a week (08. 06. 11)
- Britain from Space (14. 06. 11)
- Watch an ESA presentation on 25 years of comet science (15. 06. 11)
- Reach for the stars - ESERO-UK Space Education Day (16. 06. 11)
- ESA releases an iPhone app (21. 06. 11)
- VIDEO: A look inside Space Shuttle Discovery (22. 06. 11)
- ESA is inviting entries for the 2012 European CanSat competition (22. 06. 11)
- Salt-rich plumes expelled by Enceladus is exciting news for Astrobiology (27. 06. 11)
- Space Ambassador Paul Roche is helping the British Council build stronger links between space scientists in the UK and Russia (28. 06. 11)
- ESA Summer of Code in Space 2011 (28. 06. 11)
- Do you want to make a call to the International Space Station? (29. 06. 11)
- May 2011
- ESA's 2011 Teachers' Summer Workshop (03. 05. 11)
- Choose the right telescope to take advantage of the upcoming Meteor shower this Friday morning (04. 05. 11)
- Live video stream of Atlas 5 launch - TODAY (06. 05. 11)
- UK leads space disaster charter (12. 05. 11)
- Pope Benedict calls the International Space Station (21. 05. 11)
- IOP/STFC School Grants Scheme offers £500 grants to schools to help teach and promote physics (23. 05. 11)
- Great video and sound recording of Endeavour's final launch (23. 05. 11)
- Satellite imagery reveals lost Egyptian pyramids (25. 05. 11)
- FREE Space and Astronomy days for NE schools (26. 05. 11)
- New 3D map shows the universe in its greatest detail yet (27. 05. 11)
- Take part in ESA's Cool Comet competition (31. 05. 11)
- Truly stunning timelapse video of the night sky (31. 05. 11)
- April 2011
- Mars Explorer Challenge (01. 04. 11)
- Webb Telescope FAQs (04. 04. 11)
- Envisat measures record loss of ozone over Arctic (05. 04. 11)
- SpaceX announces new mega-rocket - Falcon Heavy (06. 04. 11)
- 'First Orbit' video recreates Yuri Gagarin's trip (12. 04. 11)
- Roberto Vettori to become the final European to fly on Space Shuttle Endeavour (13. 04. 11)
- Great opportunity for Asteroid Observing tonight (14. 04. 11)
- Clickable guide to the International Space Station (14. 04. 11)
- Watch live video of the Ariane 5 liftoff, this Friday, 22 April, 10.37pm (18. 04. 11)
- Space Education Evaluation (18. 04. 11)
- Training Opportunity in Paris/Lisbon for UK Teachers (18. 04. 11)
- Roberto Vittori's ISS mission to discover 'dark matter' (20. 04. 11)
- Applications now open for the position of Teacher in Residence at RAL (21. 04. 11)
- China unveils rival to International Space Station (27. 04. 11)
- March 2011
- EGNOS navigation system begins serving Europe’s aircraft (03. 03. 11)
- GOCE successfully maps Earth's gravity (06. 03. 11)
- Cosmic Futures competition offers students the chance to become professional space journalists (07. 03. 11)
- Four teams selected for ESA's second 'Spin Your Thesis' campaign (14. 03. 11)
- Institute of Physics Teachers awards (16. 03. 11)
- Messenger spacecraft poised for Mercury orbit insertion (17. 03. 11)
- Don't miss tomorrow's 'Extreme Super-Moon' (18. 03. 11)
- A dazzling slideshow of images of recent events in space (23. 03. 11)
- Alpine Galileo test site to host ESA's navigation summer school (27. 03. 11)
- First image of Mercury taken by Messenger probe (29. 03. 11)
- New space technology programme to drive innovation announces formal commencement of the UK Space Agency (31. 03. 11)
- Plans announced for the creation of the world's biggest radio telescope (31. 03. 11)
- February 2011
- CryoSat ice data now open to all (01. 02. 11)
- European Commissioner: Space is a must to tackle climate change (04. 02. 11)
- Space Medicine 2011 - Workshop for students (07. 02. 11)
- The end of the world in 2012? Science communication and science scares (10. 02. 11)
- Want to find out more about how GPS works? (11. 02. 11)
- Search begins for new planet Tyche (14. 02. 11)
- Watch the live launch of the Johannes Kepler ATV (14. 02. 11)
- Student sponsorship opportunity for the International Astronautical Congress 2011 (15. 02. 11)
- New website to be set up by the Vatican and the Italian Space Agency (20. 02. 11)
- Patrick Moore Medal to recognise outstanding teachers of astronomy and geophysics (21. 02. 11)
- 2 days until final shuttle Discovery launch (22. 02. 11)
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter delivers stunningly detailed image of the nearside of the Moon (23. 02. 11)
- Watch the docking of ATV Johannes Kepler live - TODAY (24. 02. 11)
- Interactive 3D tour lets you explore the James Webb Space Telescope (24. 02. 11)
- Sir Patrick Moore on the success of The Sky At Night (28. 02. 11)
- January 2011
- New solar system app for the iPad (04. 01. 11)
- Andromeda's once and future stars (05. 01. 11)
- Rocky exoplanet discovery is a huge leap forward in the search for Earth-like worlds (10. 01. 11)
- Planck shows off its 'bag of tricks' (11. 01. 11)
- 'Map of the universe' revealed (12. 01. 11)
- Space Academy Teacher Conference (14. 01. 11)
- 2011 set to be Europe's 'year of rockets' (15. 01. 11)
- Stargazers not put off by torrential rain across Wales (18. 01. 11)
- ESA's Mercury mapper feels the heat (18. 01. 11)
- SSTL to send mobile phone into space (24. 01. 11)
- Scholarship funding available for the International Space University (27. 01. 11)
- Applications now open for ESA's Alpbach Summer School 2011 (28. 01. 11)
- Top stargazing locations in Britain (31. 01. 11)
- Listen to Space Ambassador Anu Ojha exploring the history of animals in space (31. 01. 11)
- Stephen Tetlow offers a viewpoint on the potential growth of the space industry (31. 01. 11)
- December 2010
- Astronomers claim that the Universe may be even vaster than first realised (02. 12. 10)
- Google Science Fair (02. 12. 10)
- UK Space industry goes from strength to strength at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus (03. 12. 10)
- CryoSat-2 goes live (06. 12. 10)
- A bedroom in space (07. 12. 10)
- Private space capsule Dragon ship launched on Falcon 9 (09. 12. 10)
- How to trap a supernova in a jar (10. 12. 10)
- Behind the Webb – new video tracks the progress of the James Webb Space Telescope (15. 12. 10)
- European Space Agency offers unrivalled access to the Sun (15. 12. 10)
- ESA’s Cryosat-2 mission delivers an insight into Arctic currents (19. 12. 10)
- Opportunity for European students to attend NASA Academy 2011 (20. 12. 10)
- November 2010
- Will an asteroid collision end life on Earth? (03. 11. 10)
- Probe sweeps past ‘space peanut’ (05. 11. 10)
- New report from the Oxford Economics consultancy shows the strength of the UK space sector (08. 11. 10)
- Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a ‘mini-Big Bang’ (09. 11. 10)
- Participate in a unique 'Greenhouse in space' school challenge (10. 11. 10)
- Hayabusa probe successfully collected particles from Asteroid Itokawa (16. 11. 10)
- Take part in the 2011 Rocketry Challenge for UK schools (16. 11. 10)
- Mission X in the UK (18. 11. 10)
- Apply now for your place at Scottish Space School! (19. 11. 10)
- Europe's new astronauts graduate (24. 11. 10)
- ESA produces pan-European land cover and usage map from space (29. 11. 10)
- Hylas-1 satellite to deliver broadband access to rural Europe (30. 11. 10)
- October 2010
- UK space students graduate from International Space University (07. 10. 10)
- European students participate in IAC 2010 (08. 10. 10)
- Mars: How low can you go? (08. 10. 10)
- UK teachers and students to benefit from galaxy of cosmic resources with launch of ESERO-UK (13. 10. 10)
- Aftermath of the collision of two asteroids captured by spacecraft (14. 10. 10)
- Mission X launches on the Internet (18. 10. 10)
- Interested in finding out more about Europe’s vision for space exploration? (20. 10. 10)
- 'A new space policy for Europe' at the European Parliament (29. 10. 10)
- September 2010
- Fly your experiment to the edge of space! (03. 09. 10)
- ESA invites students to spin their theses (07. 09. 10)
- Astronomers find evidence for unusual class of black holes (09. 09. 10)
- Astronomy photographer of the year 2010 (10. 09. 10)
- Competition: Take control of Cassini (13. 09. 10)
- Space Academy Science Teacher INSETS (14. 09. 10)
- 13 teams selected for next stage of Fly Your Thesis! 2011 (15. 09. 10)
- UKDMCii leading new ESA project to strengthen UK disaster response (16. 09. 10)
- 2010 ESA/GTTP workshop for science teachers (20. 09. 10)
- Catching the strange strangelets (22. 09. 10)
- Lego helps analyse a comet (29. 09. 10)
- Compete and find your way to Jupiter! (30. 09. 10)
- August 2010
- Worldwide solar storm warns of things to come (04. 08. 10)
- Stephen Hawking: mankind must colonise space or die out (09. 08. 10)
- UK-ESERO at the National Eisteddfod (18. 08. 10)
- Fireball on Jupiter (20. 08. 10)
- Perseid meteor shower over for another year (23. 08. 10)
- Scientists develop a new way to weigh planets (23. 08. 10)
- 2010 European CanSat competition - winners announced (24. 08. 10)
- Origin of Magnetars challenges Black Hole formation theory (26. 08. 10)
- July 2010
- Herschel telescope spies galaxy with cosmic 'zoom lens' (02. 07. 10)
- Astronauts launch competition for top space adventure (04. 07. 10)
- Most massive stars ever discovered (21. 07. 10)
- June 2010
- Train like an astronaut (01. 06. 10)
- UK Space Agency to lead in the search for life on Mars (12. 06. 10)
- May 2010
- 2010 Space Academy Teachers Conference (01. 05. 10)
- An impossible star (06. 05. 10)
- ESA Human Spaceflight Teachers Workshop (10. 05. 10)
- ESA giving a spare arm to the International Space Station (12. 05. 10)
- February 2010
- ExoMars programme goes ahead (25. 02. 10)
