The flight of monkeys Able (an American-born rhesus monkey supplied by the Army) and Baker (a South American squirrel monkey furnished by the Navy) marked the first successful recovery of living creatures after their return to earth from outer space. The monkeys rode in the nose cone of Jupiter Missile AM-18 to an altitude of 300 miles and a distance of 1,500 miles, successfully withstanding a weightless period of about 9 minutes. Their survival of speeds over 10,000 miles per hour was the first step toward putting a man into space.