Victorian Steampunk Cat from Second Life Kittycats
Victorian Steampunk Cat from Second Life Kittycats
I adored the last Steampunk cat I made so I thought I’d try again from the Second Life Kittycats I had been using earlier this week.
Doesn’t he look like he’s ready to fly a balloon around the world?
Did you know in 1963, the cat Félicette participated in a 15-minute suborbital mission? Her capsule was launched from the Sahara desert in France’s experimental space flight and reached an altitude of 100 miles above the Earth. The sweet little cat did survive her trip to outer space (but unfortunately a few months later the scientists euthanized her to study her brain — which I think sucks. )
A Kickstart campaign succeeded in raising $57,000 for a statue of her placed at the International Space University at Strasbourg, France in 2020.
This youtube video kicked off the effort to create a memorial to her
While I think it’s horrible they didn’t let her retire with honors and get adopted out, I do think she does deserve to be commemorated like the dogs and chimps who have gone into space.
A Smithsonian article has more details: “Félicette, the First Cat in Space, Finally Gets a Memorial”
The Artbreeder steampunk cat image at the top evolved in Artbreeder from the phrase “Mysterious steampunk cats” with this image
2 Replies to “Victorian Steampunk Cat from Second Life Kittycats”
She does deserve a memorial but I hate that they killed her, and that animals are ever killed for study. Also I think any animals sent alone into space like that must have been terrified. On another note, it’s good to see you back again!
I agree with you totally, Leah. It must have been scary for her to go up in a rocket — I bet it was super noisy.
It’s good to be back. I have a new job where I’m working from home doing customer service. So it leaves me more energy to do the things I want do to. I visited your blog but it said the last post was Oct. 2021. Did you move to another blog? If so, could you comment in your new url? If not, it’s cool. I took an unintentional two year break so I know how it is. Thanks for popping in for a visit.