An Aerobee sounding rocket was launched on May 22, 1952, at Holloman Air Force Base, NM, with two monkeys (Mike and Patricia) and two white mice (Albert and Mildred) in the upper section of the roughly 25 foot tall rocket, to an altitude of 36 miles and a top speed of 2000mph.
The mice were in a slowly rotating clear drum with a movie camera trained on them. Sections of that film showing them experiencing weightlessness were used in some SF Films of the 1950s. Those instances are noted in the descriptions of the films on the SFFot50s main page.
The section of the rocket containing the animals was rigged with a parachute. All animals were recovered and Mildred's and Albert's preserved bodies are on display in the Aerobee compartment display at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.
Video shows an unidentified Aerobee Mouse in Earth-side lab becoming acclimated to the clear rotating drum environment used in the Aerobee flight. Using goofy Youtube version to serve all browsers
The song is "Do Lord Remember Me" by Mississippi John Hurt.
