Mice in space, but doubts about orbit: archive, 4 June 1959

4 June 1959: No signal received amid US attempts to bring mice back alive

Vandenberg Air Base (California), June 3.
The United States fired four mice into space to-day in a Discoverer III satellite, but the United States Air Force said three hours later that it doubted whether the satellite was in orbit.

The mice had been fired from the base here in the first United States attempt to put animals into orbit in a satellite and to recover them alive. However, the Air Force announced at 12 10a.m. (B.S.T. Thursday) that tracking stations at Annette Island and Kodiak, Alaska, and at Hawaii had not received any radio signals from the satellite. Stations around the world were warned to search for Discoverer III.