Put Space Cat on a Pedestal

By Yasemin Saplakoglu on November 15, 2017

A campaign calls for the creation of a statue to recognize Félicette, the first cat to be sent into space.

太空猫——铸座铜像纪念它

撰文/播音 亚瑟旻·萨普拉克鲁（Yasemin Saplakoglu）

翻译 许楠

审校 张清越

Animal astronauts have included monkeys, dogs, mice, and even fruit flies. Most are fondly remembered, except maybe the flies. Laika the dog has a monument in her honor in Moscow. Ham the chimpanzee is buried with a proper plaque at The International Space Hall Of Fame in New Mexico. So where is the love for Félicette?

猴子、狗、小鼠甚至是果蝇都曾当过动物宇航员。它们大多数都被人们温柔地纪念着（或许除了果蝇）。比如狗狗莱卡（Laika）的荣誉纪念碑就伫立在莫斯科。黑猩猩汉姆（Ham）被葬在新墨西哥州的国际太空名人堂，并有一块专属名牌与之相伴。那么我们对费莱斯特（Félicette）的爱在哪里呢？

That’s what Matthew Serge Guy wants to know. He’s a creative director at the marketing agency Anomaly London. And he’s heading an effort to fund a statue for Félicette—the first cat in space.

这正是马修·谢尔盖（Matthew Serge Guy）想要知道的。马修·谢尔盖是Anomaly伦敦（广告公司）销售部的创意总监，而他正在筹建费莱斯特的铜像——第一只飞上太空的猫。

Félicette briefly strutted into headlines when she took her short flight in 1963. At the time, the effects of launches and weightlessness on the human body were still poorly understood. So, a group of French scientists decided to observe what happens to a floating cat. 

在1963年的短暂太空飞行之后，费莱斯特曾短暂地占领了头条。那时，人们对于宇航器发射和失重状态对人体的影响还不甚了解。所以，一些法国科学家们决定通过猫来观察失重到底会造成什么。

Félicette was chosen from a group of 14 intensively space-trained cats. It was either her “calm” demeanor or sleek physique that made her the winner. She was hooked up with electrodes and rocketed to an altitude of nearly 100 miles. After experiencing weightlessness for about five minutes, she parachuted back down in a capsule. Researchers then observed her behavior for a few months, after which she was supposedly sacrificed for study of her brain.

费莱斯特是从14只高强度太空训练的猫中挑选出来的。 “沉稳”的姿态和流畅的体形都让费莱斯特胜出一筹。在连接电极片后，它被发射到了海拔近100英里的空中。经历了约5分钟的失重后，她在分离舱中降落返回。研究人员对它进行了几个月的行为观察，而后剖解取其大脑进行研究。

Now, after all these years, Guy created a Kickstarter project that aims to raise nearly $53,000 to build a 1.5-meter bronze statue of Félicette in her hometown of Paris. The deadline is 3:01 A.M. Eastern time on Friday, November 17th. To find the Kickstarter page, just google Kickstarter and space cat.

时隔多年后的今天，盖为费莱斯特在美国众筹网站Kickstarter创建了一个项目，旨在筹集53,000美元的资金，为它在故乡巴黎铸造一尊高1.5米的铜像。项目的截止日期是11月17日凌晨3：01，东部时间的星期五。更多了解，请登录谷歌搜索Kickstarter和Space cat。

Donators are eligible for small prizes such as postcards and tote bags. And some larger ones such as recognition on a plaque near the statue. A broader aim of the project is to acknowledge all the animals that were shot into space as unwitting test subjects—a purr-fect opportunity for some credit.

捐赠者都可以得到如明信片或帆布包这样的小礼物。而对于大投资人，则会在铜像旁的名牌上致谢。其更深远的寓意，是要答谢所有被送上太空的“不明就里”的动物们——这是个赞颂一下它们的“绝喵”机会。

—Yasemin Saplakoglu

——亚瑟旻•萨普拉克鲁