While Albert III perished in an explosion, Albert II perished on impact. Albert IV died on impact even though his flight was more successful than those of his predecessors.
Then, on August 31, 1950, a mouse that had not been anesthetized made the journey but did not survive another V-2 launch.
The first monkey to make it through a space voyage
NASA didn’t celebrate the success of a monkey returning home alive until September 1951. Yorick, whose real name was Albert VI, traveled 44.7 miles on an Aerobee rocket with 11 other mice.
He and two of his fellow mice perished two hours after the flight, but he survived. It was thought that tension from overhearing in the capsule after landing was the cause of their deaths.
