The story of the monkey Juan, the "first Argentine astronaut" to reach the space

A monkey from the missionary jungle, weighing a kilo – and – a – half and calling himself Juan, became in December 1969 the "first Argentine astronaut" to be sent to space, five months after the war. arrival of the man on the moon.

"The escape of the monkey Juan takes place in a context where Argentina had its space agency, which called itself at the time National Commission for Space Research (which today is called 39). Hui Conae), which had an intense program of work, including the development of vectors and the development of rockets, "he told Diego Bagú, director of the planetarium of the city of La Plata.

On December 23, 1969, at 0630, the Canopus II sounding rocket was successfully propelled with the Monkey Juan as a crew member during a suborbital flight (did not enter into orbit) of eight minutes at a height of about 90 km. the limit of the Earth's atmosphere with outer space.

It was launched from the Chamical Self-Propelled Projectile Exploration and Launching Center in La Rioja.

After the trip, the monkey Juan lived more than two years in the zoo of the city of Córdoba.

The experiment was conducted by a team of Argentine engineers, biologists and doctors, whose technologies were developed in the country, as part of a project called BIO Experience, led by the National Institute of Aeronautical Medicine. and space and the National Commission for Space Research. .

The BIO project, led by engineer Aldo Zeoli, one of the fathers of the Argentine astronautics, had as main objective the experimentation of living beings during rocket fire and if you could reach the space, much better, "said Bagú.

"Belisario, a laboratory rat, was the first to be tested on a rocket.It was a successful experiment from April 1967," he said.

The rocket reached almost three kilometers altitude, far less than the space (100 km), but allowed to experiment with living beings above the rockets and especially the acceleration produced by these launches.

"The problem is that Belisario endured it and went on to live several years after that experience," Bagú said.

In this line, he stressed that "thanks to the experience of Belisario, Argentina has become the fourth country in the history of the world to experiment with living beings the launch of rockets after the States United States, the Soviet Union and France ".