Meet Sam Space. He’s a rhesus monkey who was blasted into space 63 years ago next month. On December 4, 1959, Sam hew from Wallops Island, Virginia, about 53 miles high in Little Joe II, part of the Mercury program. In a tonguein-cheek interview conducted by Parade’s Washington correspondent, Jack Anderson (of muckraking fame), Sam told Parade all about his trip.

“My journey into space lasted little longer than it takes to scoot up a tall tree. But it was preceded by months of training, dieting and medical diagnosis,” Sam reported. During the hight, Sam was wired up and his brain waves, muscular reaction, heart activity and respiration were measured. He also wore goggles to measure dizziness, and was strapped into a chair lined with plastic foam to absorb the shock. His space capsule measured only 36 inches long and weighed just 100 pounds (including Sam’s seven pounds).

“There were moments when I expected to ascend right on to monkey heaven,” Sam said of the launch. “I thought the blast-off pressure was going to squash me hatter than would an elephant’s foot. High in space, my arms seemed to be floating away from me. Then my spaceship splashed into the Atlantic Ocean with a jolt that almost scrambled my insides. But I came through it without a misplaced vertebra, and doctors report I am fighting fit.”

Sam went on to “say” that he was happily retired now and would be well taken care of the rest of his life. A few months after Sam, a monkey named “Miss Sam” hew eight miles high in a test of emergency procedures. In all, 32 non-human primates were launched into space.