More than half a century ago, a Parisian street cat was launched into space by the French space program. She returned alive, was euthanized and studied by scientists who were interested in the effects of anti-gravity on a living organism.
But the legacy of Félicette was quickly forgotten by history and Matthew Guy is on a mission to change this.
Guy, a 31-year-old creative director from London and self-confessed cat person, first stumbled upon the cat’s story on a tea towel he found in his office’s kitchen.
“I came across something that was basically a false memorial to her,” he told Global News. “I went back to my desk, Googled it, and I found out it wasn’t a Soviet cat, it was a French cat.”
Intrigued, he did a simple online search about the “first cat in space” and fell into a “click hole” as he tried to sort out the real story.
Guy admits it was a challenge to find verifiable information about Félicette.
“Her story’s just changed over the years as it travelled from person to person,” he said. “Every so often at this time of year, the anniversary of her mission, there’s usually some sort of report or article about her, but the facts are muddled and seemed to come from the wrong sources. There’s all sorts of takes on her story.”
For example, one widely circulated rumour is that a different male cat named Felix was initially supposed to take the journey, but ran away the morning of the mission. Félicette is said to have been chosen as the backup cat for the experiment. This version of the story was debunked by a scientist who worked at the Centre National d’études Spatiales during the same time.
Relying on articles from the year of her launch and more recent stories that spoke to scientists who were involved in the experiment, Guy decided it was time to set the record straight and build a memorial for the feline.
“It shocked me that she wasn’t more well-known in our modern internet age of cat worship,” he added, citing examples such as Grumpy Cat and Nyan Cat.
“In many ways, she deserves to be the most famous cat in the world. She’s certainly the highest achieving cat in history. Literally.”
Among Félicette’s contemporaries is the more famous Laika the dog – memorialized in a song by Arcade Fire and a statue in Moscow – and Ham, the “astrochimp” who is buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.
Guy recognizes that these animals had no choice in the matter of being launched outside of the atmosphere and believes Félicette deserves a memorial as a “poignant reflection” of her sacrifice.
“It’s a reminder that Félicette was an unwilling participant – she had no idea what she was doing. She didn’t know she was going to space. She was put into a dark box and had no idea what was going on,” said Guy. “It should be a reminder of not only Félicette but sacrifices made by lots of animal astronauts over the years who were all unwilling participants.”
If he reaches his crowdfunding goal, Guy hopes to erect the 1.5-metre tall bronze statue in Félicette’s hometown of Paris. If the campaign doesn’t reach its goal, he says he’s satisfied knowing that he helped spread the word of Félicette’s life and space journey.
“I want to tell the world about it.”