On January 21, 1960, a monkey named Miss Sam launched on a Little Joe rocket to help NASA test the launch escape system for its new Mercury spacecraft. Space History Archives👉 https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html This spacecraft would ultimately carry the first American astronauts into space. Miss Sam didn't fly all the way to space; the rocket only reached an altitude of about 9 miles. To test her psychomotor performance during the flight, Miss Sam was trained to pull a lever