One of the joys of Chinese New Year is that celebrations traditionally go on for 16 days … so there’s plenty of time to send out new year greetings!!
2016 begins the year of the Monkey. In celebration of this we thought we’d share with you a story of great achievement in a tiny monkey’s life:
Miss Baker – The first American astronaut to survive a trip into space
On May 28th 1959, Miss Baker (a tiny squirrel monkey) and Able (a slightly bigger rhesus monkey) blasted off on a 16 minute mission into space. For the first time the NASA rocket and its astronauts returned safely home. Previous to that, only fruit flies and corn seeds had survived the journey. Sadly though Able died only four days later.
After a flurry of media attention (including an appearance on the cover of Life Magazine) Miss Baker retired from the space business. She went on to have a long and pampered life, during which she lived on cottage cheese and bananas and received fan mail from thousands of schoolchildren. She was married twice, first to Big George and then to Norman, neither of whom went anywhere special or did anything of note.
Miss Baker passed away in 1984 aged 27, at that point also holding the record for longest living squirrel monkey. She is buried at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Alabama where, to this day, admirers leave bananas on her headstone.
If you were born in : 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, or 2004, you are a Monkey and this is your year!
Some monkey ‘facts’:
Monkeys are witty, intelligent (obviously) and mischievous. They are hard workers, fast learners and crafty opportunists.
Lucky numbers: 1, 7 and 8
Lucky colours: white, blue and gold
Lucky directions: north, northwest and west (really?)
Lucky fruit: bananas (not really)
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
Mo and Dave
