I think that's better than them choosing animals that where already timid easily panicked, untrusting animals. They'd have had a much worse time during the process.
@@OnlySlightyRadioactive Obviously, but you are missing the point of the original comment. Because these animals are calm and trusting by nature, instead of living a long, peaceful, life as a perfect pet, they are used in experiments that results in their death. Basically, they are punished for being good pets. Even with this cat, she survived the experiment and then got punished for it by being euthanized so the scientists can examine her brain, which kinda sounds completely unnecessary.
@bluetiger2468 🤣 just kidding just kidding. I love cats, have three ridiculously spoiled babies myself. Just saw an opportunity to joke. It is sad though. We have a responsibility to be our best for animals, especially those trusting and counting on us.
Yeah! When I heard she survived, I thought "Great! A scientist probably adopted her, and she became a mascot for the science program!" And then I realized. I never heard about this story. And then the video said she was euthanized to examine her brain... :(
I happened to come across Felicette's story just a week ago, watched the documentary footage and my face got flooded by tears during this... these tight boxes, stiff placement making cats (very flexible arboreal-ish animals!) just statues, their meows of distress... plus the fact cats are not comforted by human interaction on default like a dog or chimpanzee would (these are more social and I guess, they would get less stressed by the tests, but I may be wrong) .... It just broke my heart. Little did I know starting reading article of famous cats in science... I AM a fan of science, but this was just pure cruelty.
Cat: _falls asleep_ Scientists: It *must* be because of sensory deprivation and the fact cats sleep 27 hours a day probably has nothing to do with it. 😀
Félicité means fortune and happiness, félicette is a contraction with the suffix -ette, which usually means small and feminine. So she was the small fortune. Makes me very sad
I know it was for science...but Félicette deserved better than euthanasia. She could have lived a long (by cat standard) and healthy life and they could have done the autopsy after she passed of natural causes. Heck they might have learned more that way; study the long-term effects of how a mammal develops after a jaunt to space.
I went into this video expecting Félicette to die in space. I was relieved when I heard she made it home ok. Was sad even tho I expected them to end her life anyways. Also saddened to hear another died in an explosion. I hate how we kill and torture animals for science
Sadly, the "Albert" monkey program in the US in the late 1940s and early 1950s had a much worse track record. Most of them didn't make it back safely. Albert 1 may even have died before the rocket even launched.
Fortunately, NONE of this would even remotely fly today! (No pun intended). Ethical treatment of animals in research is much, MUCH more strict now. But back in the 1950s and 60s... well, there wasn't a ton of ethics in _human_ research at the time (almost none, actually - most of that wasn't really codified until the 1980s), never mind the so-called "lower orders" of animals 😖
Yeah we don't do this type of experiment anymore there's so many red flags in it. Now we do still use animals for experiments and we do have to euthanize them sometimes in order to get data out but you are required by law and most if not all of the world to use the simplest animal that can give you the information you need and you need to do it in such a way that the animal does not suffer unnecessarily. Since we do have to raise and and the lives of animals early for our survival as omnivores, you have to be better about it than what most agriculture is required to do. Yes we set the bar slightly higher than what agriculture needs to do because of the potential for exploitation and using loopholes to do worse. It was pretty clever of whoever thought to make it a little bit more restrictive for the science to think of that, but then again by the time this came around we had some doozies of examples in the written record. If you become a scientist you will go through some ethics class and learn about them and potentially throw up a few times.
Adult me completely understands why she was euthanized as a course of the research, it's not like they had MRIs (well, they did, but...) in the 60s. However, adult me is glad I never learned this story as a child, as I probably wouldn't have been able to deal.
People should consider naming their pets after the animal astronauts in order to honor their legacy. It’s the least we could do after putting them through that.
Not to be a downer but naming your pet after animal astronauts does nothing for them theyre long gone nor does it do anything for future pets that will be tested on. I believe making it illegal for science to use pets as test subjects or to make testing on animals less barbaric that they ensure the animal is adopted after would honor animal astronauts more.
It sure does, although if tests have to be made it still is better than testing on humans... It's a sad fact of life that in most cases some life has to die in order for other life to live. Same goes for evolution or progress of any other kind...
No animal deserves to be test subjects for space. But Félicette and Laika are precious cat and dog humanity don’t deserve. As horrific and inhumane it was, thank you for your contributions, Félicette and Laika. ❤❤
my cat hyperventilates and passes out whenever we have to drive her to the vet, so i get why one might "sleep" when stressed. u go limp, stop making choices and hope for the best bc it's too overwhelming.
This tells me one thing for sure:if there are aliens out there they aren't trying to conquer us. If they were, Felicette would have negotiated with them and we would all be serving our fuzzy overloads as virtual slaves. BRB, my kitty is demanding a top-up for her food bowl. It's only 80% full!
The version of the story I've heard before included the intended test subject running away and Felicet being a random stray cat who was caught days before the louch and just stuck in the rocket while she was kicking and screaming. I guess it's just an urban legend, but I'm wondering where it came from
It wouldn't surprise me if there were other trials done that were a little bit more brutal. But yeah I couldn't have been this one because the surgical prep alone would have made that not a valid story.
@@darcieclements4880 I mean, if I think about it for more than a few minutes - rockets and angry panicking cats are not the best combination (even regardless of the animal cruelty, the cat would just break something)
Ok. I'm noticing something here. I've lost count but recently you upload videos with one thumbnail image and then a frew days later you change it to something flashier and more eye catching. Anyone else notice this? Is this some sort of experiment?
I feel like the being accelerated 9gs thing might have more to do with the cat losing consciousness. Also ik ethically and experimentally this wouldn't happen today, but I think that's also a privilege built upon the backs of ppl and animals like Felicette.
Hold On. Felicette went to space in 1963. Yuri Gagarin went to space in April 1961, then Alan Shepard in May 1961. We already knew what happens to people in space. They tortured and killed that cat for no reason.
@@Aeturnalis either this waa data for the French program or added studies (i.e. no ones going to euthanize to check a human pilot to check the organs).
Well, not really, because they didn’t know what would happen if you launch humans into space, hence sending the animals, and then they send the humans because (some of) the animals survived
I did not watch this video but I read in the comments that poor Félicette was brought back but did not get to live a happy live. I find it horrible that other animals (like poor Laika) was just left to die and she died of stress (what that poor baby had to go through). We humans are a horrible race and do not deserve to live on this planet. We destroy it and use other living, feeling beeings as test subjects. We are monsters.
All the animal were chosen because they were calm and trusting. Then we killed them. Felicette should have live out her life with a loving family. I know we did thing different, back then but that don't make it right. Just like Peanuts The Squirrel who did nothing wrong, But somebody bib, so they killed him.
I do wonder wtf the cats were thinking at all this stuff happening, hah... Félicette. What a great cat! .... And then they killed her... 😠 That part actively makes me upset. That she had a great flight and all that, it's weird and not the best but she was okay and everything so, it all worked out in the end. BUT KILLING HER JUST TO STUDY HER INSIDE? NO! No no no that's unacceptable.
Gotta say: since we, as humans, with ALL OUR TECH, still can't decide sometimes if a female adult with all other signs is in danger of a major medical event... Of ANY KIND mmm... Maybe We ought to chill a tad and think there ought not be ANY LAW about how doctors try to SAVE people who might need to be.
with regards to animal testing ethics: Wirhin a decade, or two at most, we'll be rolled back - at least - to 1960's standards; probably farther. Same for human testing. (I'm not endorsing this change, just observing the direction of travel of the world.)
The most heartbreaking thing about the animal astronauts is they almost all were chosen specifically for their calm and trusting nature
I think that's better than them choosing animals that where already timid easily panicked, untrusting animals. They'd have had a much worse time during the process.
@@OnlySlightyRadioactive Obviously, but you are missing the point of the original comment. Because these animals are calm and trusting by nature, instead of living a long, peaceful, life as a perfect pet, they are used in experiments that results in their death. Basically, they are punished for being good pets. Even with this cat, she survived the experiment and then got punished for it by being euthanized so the scientists can examine her brain, which kinda sounds completely unnecessary.
@bluetiger2468 I see... Very sad, indeed. Well, hopefully they were able to eat it after it died, that way none of it went to waste.
The comment went right over your head @@OnlySlightyRadioactive
@bluetiger2468 🤣 just kidding just kidding. I love cats, have three ridiculously spoiled babies myself. Just saw an opportunity to joke. It is sad though. We have a responsibility to be our best for animals, especially those trusting and counting on us.
I was hoping she'd be taken home by one of the scientists and would live a long, happy kitty life. Poor Felicette.
Yeah! When I heard she survived, I thought "Great! A scientist probably adopted her, and she became a mascot for the science program!" And then I realized. I never heard about this story. And then the video said she was euthanized to examine her brain... :(
I know, same here. Well...hopefully they were able to eat her and not let her body go to total waste.
🤣🤣🤣 Just kidding. I have three incredibly spoiled kitties, I just wanted to get a laugh out of you. Hopefully it worked.
Unfortunately they were concerned about the short term effects of the flight over the long term, so yeah, kinda sucks for the cat.
@@danielprimern932 Your "joke" isn't funny in the slightest. In fact, it's gruesome. Don't give up your day job.
Félicette was the first catstronaut
Astronyaut...
Well...didnt think I was going to cry today but here we are.
The treatment those animals received is revolting indeed.
this video felt like a horror movie waiting to hear the ending to her story
I know!!! 😭😭I watched this whilst cuddling with one of my cats, we had a moment of silence for the first and only kitty to go to space.
I happened to come across Felicette's story just a week ago,
watched the documentary footage and my face got flooded by tears
during this...
these tight boxes, stiff placement making cats (very flexible arboreal-ish animals!) just statues,
their meows of distress... plus the fact cats are not comforted by human interaction on default
like a dog or chimpanzee would (these are more social and I guess, they would get
less stressed by the tests, but I may be wrong)
....
It just broke my heart.
Little did I know starting reading article of famous cats in science...
I AM a fan of science, but this was just pure cruelty.
Cat: _falls asleep_
Scientists: It *must* be because of sensory deprivation and the fact cats sleep 27 hours a day probably has nothing to do with it.
😀
😂
My brain:🤨 27 hours seems like a lot.
Also my brain: 😮💨Dumb ass there are 24 hrs in a day. (Calling myself that, not you)
🖤
Yeah; least surprising cat reaction _ever._
I’ve never ordered a SciShow Space pin so quickly. May Felicette’s memory be a blessing.
I also checked out the pin, but it looks just like a regular cat and not identical to Felicette at all.
“That’s one small step for a cat, one giant leap for feline kind.”- Félicette
for A cat. 🙃
-meow armstrong
And alot better than the Russian dogs
Perhaps if MRI was available back then, she would not have been euthanized. RIP Felicette. You were a good kitty.
"Oh, you work for NASA? What do you do?"
"I load the cats into the centrifuge and grade their performance.🤓"
lol
I just looked it up and Félicette means fortunate or happiness... that's just sad...
Félicité means fortune and happiness, félicette is a contraction with the suffix -ette, which usually means small and feminine. So she was the small fortune. Makes me very sad
@@ZaDussault That's even more heartbreaking :(
The cat sleeping sounds normal to me.
Jaw dropped when he said she was euthanized
Same. I love science. And sometimes it breaks my heart and makes me so upset. 🥺
Yeah that really made me sad
I was expecting it. Pretty common in animal testing. :(
I know it was for science...but Félicette deserved better than euthanasia. She could have lived a long (by cat standard) and healthy life and they could have done the autopsy after she passed of natural causes. Heck they might have learned more that way; study the long-term effects of how a mammal develops after a jaunt to space.
I love that you guys designed her pin to look like a Japanese maneki-neko!!! ;_;
I went into this video expecting Félicette to die in space. I was relieved when I heard she made it home ok. Was sad even tho I expected them to end her life anyways.
Also saddened to hear another died in an explosion.
I hate how we kill and torture animals for science
Sadly, the "Albert" monkey program in the US in the late 1940s and early 1950s had a much worse track record. Most of them didn't make it back safely. Albert 1 may even have died before the rocket even launched.
Fortunately, NONE of this would even remotely fly today! (No pun intended). Ethical treatment of animals in research is much, MUCH more strict now. But back in the 1950s and 60s... well, there wasn't a ton of ethics in _human_ research at the time (almost none, actually - most of that wasn't really codified until the 1980s), never mind the so-called "lower orders" of animals 😖
Yeah we don't do this type of experiment anymore there's so many red flags in it. Now we do still use animals for experiments and we do have to euthanize them sometimes in order to get data out but you are required by law and most if not all of the world to use the simplest animal that can give you the information you need and you need to do it in such a way that the animal does not suffer unnecessarily. Since we do have to raise and and the lives of animals early for our survival as omnivores, you have to be better about it than what most agriculture is required to do. Yes we set the bar slightly higher than what agriculture needs to do because of the potential for exploitation and using loopholes to do worse. It was pretty clever of whoever thought to make it a little bit more restrictive for the science to think of that, but then again by the time this came around we had some doozies of examples in the written record. If you become a scientist you will go through some ethics class and learn about them and potentially throw up a few times.
Cat gets sent to space. Takes a nap. Very cat.
I MISS SCISHOW SPACE SO MUCH
Adult me completely understands why she was euthanized as a course of the research, it's not like they had MRIs (well, they did, but...) in the 60s. However, adult me is glad I never learned this story as a child, as I probably wouldn't have been able to deal.
Perhaps you need to get in touch with your inner child. A life is more important than our space research
One of my work shirts is a shirt that has laika on it with the words first passenger on soyuz. A strange way to remember her but still.
One of my mom's cousins had a dog named after Laika 🥰
Wait, what? The cat kept dozing off? That can’t be right!
I put this on to listen as my cat and I fall asleep. Now we're going to have nightmares.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
Well i didnt think i was gonna cry OR order my first ever SciShow pin but, here i am, doing both.
Respect!😂😂😂
That poor kitty.
Truly, you're doing exceptional work!
So appropriate that the first astronaut to nap in space is a cat.
People should consider naming their pets after the animal astronauts in order to honor their legacy. It’s the least we could do after putting them through that.
That’s what I did with my dog laika!
@@Summerxox2002 based and same
Not to be a downer but naming your pet after animal astronauts does nothing for them theyre long gone nor does it do anything for future pets that will be tested on. I believe making it illegal for science to use pets as test subjects or to make testing on animals less barbaric that they ensure the animal is adopted after would honor animal astronauts more.
@@johnnymendoza95 I don't.
@@johnnymendoza95 unless you wanna use death row prisoners instead
who up thinking about how testing on animals sucks
It sure does, although if tests have to be made it still is better than testing on humans... It's a sad fact of life that in most cases some life has to die in order for other life to live. Same goes for evolution or progress of any other kind...
I just pre-ordered my Félicette pin and a couple of mystery ones.
3:38 That's actually exactly 9.5 times the force of gravity on earth!
Felicette had the most meowtiful face I've seen on a tux kitty cat
Very elegant. And I love how the photograph included a paw print 🐾
Felicette is extremely famous in the fountain pen community, because there is a science-loving ink maker.
Always the tuxedo!
GrumpyCat would have worked wonderfully in your thumbnail! Purr Felinus Ad Astra, Felicette!
y'all were so dirty for making me think she was ok because she survived the flight
I wasn't looking and I thought you said a cat named Fifty Cent 😂
Cat knocked over all the equipment, but it just floated away, and so we never did that again.
And it would be decades before the next cat, Jonesy, would make it into space. His time in space would too eventful to doze off.
You did NOT need to make me sad! :(
No animal deserves to be test subjects for space. But Félicette and Laika are precious cat and dog humanity don’t deserve. As horrific and inhumane it was, thank you for your contributions, Félicette and Laika. ❤❤
Poor Félicette, She reminds me the Schrödinger's cat
I’m all for more human testing and less animal testing.
@5:12; I got to hope that at least some of the designs for the statue involved a cat pawing the Earth, like Félicette was going to knock it over.
I came here to learn, not to cry. T_T
The goodest kitty
And the baddest humans.
"Near zero gravity" is a strange phrase to hear from SciShow. Like... Microgravity? Weightlessness?
How we treat animals speaks volumes about our souls, or lack thereof.
"Felicette was euthanized so that scientists could study her brain"
Not sure that's what euthanized means. Sounds like "killed" is a better word.
not a cat more successful than me 🗿
Elon Cat/Cat Musk.
Great video, but we all know Mr. Pebbles was the first cat in space.
my cat hyperventilates and passes out whenever we have to drive her to the vet, so i get why one might "sleep" when stressed. u go limp, stop making choices and hope for the best bc it's too overwhelming.
I feel bad for your cat but at least you don't have to deal with her on the trip
This tells me one thing for sure:if there are aliens out there they aren't trying to conquer us.
If they were, Felicette would have negotiated with them and we would all be serving our fuzzy overloads as virtual slaves.
BRB, my kitty is demanding a top-up for her food bowl. It's only 80% full!
" _Meeeow._ "
" _Feline Supplement No. #27_ "
" _Maaow_ "
- plays with cat -
The version of the story I've heard before included the intended test subject running away and Felicet being a random stray cat who was caught days before the louch and just stuck in the rocket while she was kicking and screaming. I guess it's just an urban legend, but I'm wondering where it came from
It wouldn't surprise me if there were other trials done that were a little bit more brutal. But yeah I couldn't have been this one because the surgical prep alone would have made that not a valid story.
@@darcieclements4880 I mean, if I think about it for more than a few minutes - rockets and angry panicking cats are not the best combination (even regardless of the animal cruelty, the cat would just break something)
Who needs kitten space agency we have space cats in real life
You mean Felicette didn't get the chance to destroy someone's expensive sofa? That's too bad.
I'm bummed. There are no more pins! Will you be getting more?
This one felt dirty
I can't even watch the first minute of this video. It hurts too much tbh..
That was a sad story.
Even in space, cats sleep. Sounds about right.
Poor babies
Space Cat!
Poor cat!
Cats can nap anywhere.
Ok. I'm noticing something here. I've lost count but recently you upload videos with one thumbnail image and then a frew days later you change it to something flashier and more eye catching. Anyone else notice this? Is this some sort of experiment?
I thought it was the other way around? But yes, I had noticed this.
Ouch... that one hurt. Humans are horrible. I'm so sad now!
Shades of space geckos all over again. Are there any animals we haven't killed in the name of space?
I feel like the being accelerated 9gs thing might have more to do with the cat losing consciousness. Also ik ethically and experimentally this wouldn't happen today, but I think that's also a privilege built upon the backs of ppl and animals like Felicette.
I’m kinda pissed about them euthanising her.
It pains me every time I learn about these things
Openminded savior 40
I guess it was to much to hope for to expect a happy Disney/Pixar ending to this story... 😔
cool
Hold On. Felicette went to space in 1963. Yuri Gagarin went to space in April 1961, then Alan Shepard in May 1961. We already knew what happens to people in space. They tortured and killed that cat for no reason.
@@Aeturnalis either this waa data for the French program or added studies (i.e. no ones going to euthanize to check a human pilot to check the organs).
The countries in question were not sharing their research at that time.
@@greensteve9307And today
In conclusion, it was all for nothing.
The space program would have been perfectly fine even if these tests never happened.
Well, not really, because they didn’t know what would happen if you launch humans into space, hence sending the animals, and then they send the humans because (some of) the animals survived
"where no human had been before" - a dozen actually
I did not watch this video but I read in the comments that poor Félicette was brought back but did not get to live a happy live. I find it horrible that other animals (like poor Laika) was just left to die and she died of stress (what that poor baby had to go through). We humans are a horrible race and do not deserve to live on this planet. We destroy it and use other living, feeling beeings as test subjects. We are monsters.
This channel is nothing without Hank
Poor kitties.
“She ended up being euthanized months after her journey”
I’M SORRY THEY DID WHAT?
The guy presenting this is so chipper and upbeat. I guess he does not own a cat.
I don't read it that way at all.
All the animal were chosen because they were calm and trusting. Then we killed them. Felicette should have live out her life with a loving family. I know we did thing different, back then but that don't make it right. Just like Peanuts The Squirrel who did nothing wrong,
But somebody bib, so they killed him.
I am thinking they did not have MRI back then. So sad. The only consolation is that they meant to bring her back from space. Unlike Laika.
🥺
SciShow 2025 calendar wen
Once again our feline overlords were the pioneers.
I do wonder wtf the cats were thinking at all this stuff happening, hah...
Félicette. What a great cat! .... And then they killed her... 😠 That part actively makes me upset.
That she had a great flight and all that, it's weird and not the best but she was okay and everything so, it all worked out in the end.
BUT KILLING HER JUST TO STUDY HER INSIDE? NO! No no no that's unacceptable.
The cat was euthanized to study internal organs.
Gotta say: since we, as humans, with ALL OUR TECH, still can't decide sometimes if a female adult with all other signs is in danger of a major medical event... Of ANY KIND mmm... Maybe We ought to chill a tad and think there ought not be ANY LAW about how doctors try to SAVE people who might need to be.
Have you guys heard about squirrels in space?
That’s nuts!
Is that anything like Pigs in Space? 🐷🚀
@@Snailz5 Beat me to it hehehe
No, but I've heard of cows going over the moon.
A little bit more of comparison would be nice. Don't like "wow, so cool" vibe this video has.
Hard pass on the limited edition nonsense.. but really interesting story, minus the clear animal cruelty.
That nonsense helps makes videos like the one just enjoyed, you don’t have to get one (I don’t) but it’s not nonsense
with regards to animal testing ethics: Wirhin a decade, or two at most, we'll be rolled back - at least - to 1960's standards; probably farther. Same for human testing.
(I'm not endorsing this change, just observing the direction of travel of the world.)
Felicette... felicitous... lucky? Did they name this poor kiity Lucky?
I checked on Google translate. Means "happy ones".
the 60s were a truly barbaric time. plastics in everything, cats in spaceships and twiggy!!
Her name meaning "Little Luck" makes it so ironic.
Animal Abuse 😢
Stfu
I wanna be a cat in space
If you could be a fly on the wall while they were testing those cats for space... Can only imagine the chaos.
I'm not even gonna watch this. It hurts too much to think about what they did to that poor kitty
I like stories of the French trying to stay relevant.
Short advocat 14