Brave Animals Injured in NASA Space Project Collect Compensation

When NASA launched its space exploration program one of the first projects involved with that program involved sending several animals, along with their companions, to outer space. NASA has not publicly commented on the practice of sending animals

Seattle, WA (prHWY.com) August 14, 2012 - When NASA launched its space exploration program one of the first projects involved with that program involved sending several animals, along with their companions, to outer space. NASA has not publicly commented on the practice of sending animals to outer space, but investigative journalist Stanley Wilson has uncovered that several animals were sent into outer space as recently as 10 years ago and are now currently collecting SSI disability checks from the US government.

"I first started investigating whether NASA was still using animals in their space launches", said Wilson. "It was really difficult to get a straight answer out of NASA as it tended to use real human names to identify the animals they sent into space, but I uncovered the fact that not only were we sending animals into space but we were still paying for them after they got back from space."

Sending animals into space was a common practice amongst many space programs, including China, Russia and Mexico's space programs. Animals were sent into space for a variety of reasons including research purposes for various space products and equipment or just to discover the effects space would have on the animals.

The practice of sending animals into space was supposed to be stopped in 1980, but many people believed that the practice was not stopped. Official documents show that the last documented case of animals, in this case hamsters, being sent into space dates back to 1979.

"I uncovered an SSI disability check being written out to a Spot Smith", explained Stanley Wilson. "When I dug a little deeper I discovered a note in one of the space launch files from 1990 that talked about a Spot Smith. However, when I went onto the website I didn't see any astronaut profile for a Spot Smith. That was when I dug a little deeper."

Stanley Wilson uncovered that Spot Smith was a nickname for a black lab that went into space in the early 90s. It was unclear if this dog went into space as a companion pet or for official purposes. However, it appears as if the dog had trough adjusting to life back on Earth.

"When the rocket landed it appears as if the black lab in question had trouble adjusting to the Earth's atmosphere", explained Wilson. "Because this happened on official government business, the government has been cutting him and his family a check."

NASA was unavailable for comments at the time of the investigation.

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Tag Words: ssi disability

Categories: Insurance

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