Electrodes implanted in Félicette’s skull transmitted neural impulses to the ground. Scientists at the French space agency CERMA wanted data on how a living brain responded to weightlessness and acceleration. The Véronique AGI sounding rocket ignited at the Hammaguir launch site in Algeria. The cat experienced about five minutes of weightlessness during the suborbital flight. The capsule parachuted back to the desert floor. Recovery teams reached it thirteen minutes after launch. Félicette was alive.
This flight was a milestone in the often-overlooked French space program. France was the third nation to launch an animal into space, after the Soviet Union and the United States. The scientists chose a cat for its neurological sophistication. They selected a stray from the streets of Paris for its presumed resilience. Fourteen cats entered training, which involved confinement in centrifuge capsules. Félicette, known as C 341 until her flight, was chosen for her calm demeanor.
The event is obscure because France’s space achievements were overshadowed by the superpower race. Félicette’s story also lacks a clean, sentimental ending. She was euthanized two months later so scientists could examine her brain electrodes. A postage stamp commemorated her, but misidentified her as a male named Felix. Her contribution was precise biological data, not legend. She was a small, measured step in the physiological mapping of spaceflight, a creature of pure science whose name was an afterthought.