Cosmic Critters: The Spacefaring Cat Who Defied Gravity

Blast off into the strange world of space-bound critters with Wildly Curious! In this episode, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole uncover the bizarre true story of Félicette—the first (and only) cat launched into space. From rigorous astronaut training (including high-G centrifuge spins) to a suborbital flight with no windows, Félicette’s journey was as weird as it was historic.

Why did France decide to send a stray tuxedo cat into the cosmos? What did scientists hope to learn? And how does Félicette’s story compare to other space animals like Laika? With a mix of humor and deep dives into science history, this episode explores one of the most unexpected tales of the space race.

Whether you’re a space buff, science enthusiast, or just love a wild story, this episode has something for everyone!

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy, and we are continuing cosmic critters of launching things into space.

Laura: And following up on Laika with sending a dog into space, I would like to follow it up with sending a cat into space.

Katy: Of course.

Laura: There's no way I wasn't gonna talk about a cat in space.

Katy: True.

Laura: first of all, well, I just, it's a great story, but, , it is the first, not only the first, but the only cat that has ever been sent into space, which I actually think is kind of surprising.

Katy: Yeah, it is. Especially how independent cats are. They're not

Laura: that'd actually be, like, great on the International Space Station.

Katy: Right? Cause they pretty much, just make sure they have, , automatic feeder and water and they're not needy.

Laura: through the air and they're just, bing!

Katy: Yeah, you figure, a cat out of all the things, like, all the different dogs that we've sent to space,

Laura: or, or primates and stuff. Yeah. [00:01:00] They

Katy: probably, at least the more chill, maybe they didn't pick it because, dogs are loyal, they'll listen for, training, and if you have to do stuff, where cats are just, big middle

Laura: cats would just jump on board the alien spacecraft when it eventually showed up. Like, they'd be

Katy: right? Just be, like, by suckers, and just be on their way.

Laura: Well, this is Felicite the cat. And I also like this story because, it is not a country that we often talk about with talking about the space race. Because it's France.

Katy: oh,

Laura: yeah, so like normally when we think about launching things into space, we think about the U.

S. and Russia. I mean, coming from someone from America, so, you know, that's probably pretty skewed, but there it is.

Katy: listeners are like, what the

Laura: We knew about this one forever! Yeah. Well, it was the first and only cat sent into space, and it was done as the second mammal sent into space by France. They were the third country to send a mammal up, so.

You know, Russia, us. Or us, Russia, whatever. Anyway, [00:02:00] third mammal. So some French neuroscientists, very much like Katie said in the last episode, how they chose fruit flies to go first because they already knew their genetics. Some French neuroscientists were already studying cat brains and how they worked.

So France figured, why not study the same thing but in space?

Katy: right.

Laura: well use these cats some more. So, they trained

Katy: might as well get our money's worth Oh,

Laura: right, they already figured out how their brains work for the most part. So they were like, let's figure out how they work in space and see if that changes. So they trained 14 cats for space.

Very much how they took a troop of dogs, right? They gathered some dogs, trained them for space camp. Same thing. They wanted to know, Two things. How did these cats do in cramped conditions? Because those capsules were pretty small. And so again, like Laika, they're like smaller, smaller, smaller, but for long Well, and not no, not even necessarily smaller, but small cramped conditions for longer and longer [00:03:00] periods of time.

So just a form of solitary confinement, which is awful. But perhaps of all animals, cats might be okay with it.

Katy: yeah,

Laura: But As horribly funny as this, er, as horrible as it is, it's also a really funny image. Because they wanted to know how, how did the cat's body react to G Force? So just like in, just like in normal, I guess, what they train astronauts for, you know, you see them going in that cage, they put those cats in a giant centrifuge. And so I'm just imagining,

Katy: REEEEEOW!

Laura: like, just the actual sound effects of such a thing. I'm dying as I'm reading this, thinking, it's horrible, but so funny to

Katy: Well have you seen, uh, what's it called? Rocket Man, the Disney, the space one? With the guy, he's like that dorky actor. It is so that's what I picture, like, when he's Keep going! REEEOW! Just every time.

Laura: around and around.

Katy: [00:04:00] Uhhh.

Laura: it's, poor thing. and, and so they chose cat C341 for the mission.

She was a small tuxedo cat, like a tiny little black and white one. She was also a stray. That's what all these neuroscience, all neuroscience cats. All those cats that are neuroscientists, no, all those cats being studied by neuroscientists. So, they decided that they didn't want to give them names because they didn't want to become, they, they, they were part of a scientific experiment before this, they did not, they had blind tests, you know what I mean?

Like, no attachments to these cats. Catsy 341. So, she was launched on October 18th, 1963, from the Sahara Desert in Algeria. Since then, You know, France and Algeria at the time, at least. So she was, put on board a Veronique AG 1 47 sounding rocket.

Which, all that being said, Yeah, but [00:05:00] like, What had been used previously for a lot of things is a German based rocket that's like, real beefy.

Katy: The V2 whatever.

Laura: This one is, I guess, a French one. And it was very slender. And it literally looked like one of those toy rockets that, like, you just put

Katy: The Bottle

Laura: on. Yeah, it's just

Katy: Yeah, the Bottle Rockets.

Laura: little rocket with four fins on the bottom.

 They launched that cat into space where she experienced 9. 5 G's which is

Katy: Oh my gosh.

Laura: what the Apollo astronauts would have had.

Katy: Right.

Laura: Her little cat, she's just, just like, the poor thing. Pramped into that tiny little capsule on the rocket. So then she was sent up, and she went into sub orbit. For 13 minutes, which is a pretty long, 5 minutes she would have been weightless.

So she was sub orbiting, so not quite outer space, but enough that she was experiencing weightlessness for 5 minutes.

Katy: That's gotta be so confusing for an [00:06:00] animal. You know, like, what the heck is

Laura: I mean, right, like, you've been a, like, surely they've explained what's going to happen to her, but who knows how much she's

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: And she has been tortured thus far, and then finally, like, there's no, it's so horrible. For science! She, thankfully, was parachuted back to Earth, like the graceful feline that she was. They did give her an exit strategy, thankfully.

Katy: Oh, that's good. Okay, so she had a better outcome

Laura: did had a better outcome. She parachuted back down. Unfortunately, her capsule landed, upside down. So, she was, dangling butt up in the air for a while.

Which is very undignified for a cat. But, her biometrics were really good. She was hooked up to sensors the whole time. Other than some heart problems on re entry. Yeah! Can you, I'm like,

Katy: I think we all would have heart problems on re entry. Like,

Laura: Also, having no idea what's happening to you. Because also, there's no windows in these little capsules for these animals. They're in a closed box. Just

Katy: so they, so she has This [00:07:00] is, this is, she has, she has no, for as far as she knows, she is still on

Laura: Yeah, just

Katy: then all of a sudden

Laura: box has been shaking. Her,

Katy: Yes.

Laura: like,

Katy: Yeah, right? She's like, sh shit, this is another test. This is a heck of a test this time.

Laura: my

Katy: am I gonna get a tre Am I gonna get a treat after this?

This is intense, like

Laura: Well, so, I mean, it was a resounding success. So the media, started calling her Felix after the black and white cartoon cat, from, from the cartoons. 

Katy: Because, you know, Felix has a much better ring than C

Laura: Yes, C 341. 

Katy: 3 4 1.

Laura: she was a girl, it was a girl, so they changed it, people started calling the feminine version of Felix, which is Felicite, which is what stuck. And she now has a statue at the International Space University in France to honor her. It's a really cute statue of a cat on top of planet Earth looking up at the stars.

Katy: Oh, that's cute. Yeah.

Laura: so I think this is where we should end it for people listening to the audio version. But for the YouTube or [00:08:00] like whatever version, I do want to end it with a sick and twisted ending. 

Katy: All right guys, well that ends cosmic Creature two and next week. So you guys just heard dinosaurs that we did last week, next week. Do we just wanna give the spoiler for it? 'cause I'm so excited.

Laura: be so fun.

Katy: So you guys know the could you series that we do? 

You know, could you ride that? Could you fight that? All those. So, in part two of the dinosaur episode we just did last week, we're going to go do Could You Train That? And Laura and I are each going to talk about animals that we think we could, like today, dinosaurs we think we could train, and what we would train them to do, and then justify from there.

So I, for one, can say I am so freaking excited

Laura: Well,

Katy: go over mine.

Laura: can we go from here with the kudus? And then, yeah, it just struck

Katy: You Train That?

Laura: But, like, with a twist, with the dinosaurs, it'll be, like, extra fun.

Katy: yeah. Heck [00:09:00] yes. So I'm very excited. So make sure you guys listen next week. Go check it on YouTube. Go check this one out on YouTube. We'll talk to you guys next week when we talk about could you train dinosaurs and what Laura and I would train them for in present day.

Laura: your dino.

Katy: I'm excited.

Alright, thanks

Laura: Bye.