AF Used Cats in Zero-G Experiments

Fourteen years before the first men were launched into space, Air Force scientists had serious concerns whether humans could function in zero gravity. To study the effects of weightlessness, the service conducted a series of experiments in 1947 involving cats. The research team, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, decided to use cats as subjects, Popular Science magazine reported March 21. The magazine cited a related 1962 Air Force report, which described the series of nine motions the felines were made to perform, and their reactions. “These nine self-rotation [maneuvers] are offered as a starting point for developing and classifying more efficient ways an astronaut can truly become ‘rotationally self-sufficient in a frictionless’ weightless environment,” Popular Science reported.