A brave French cat was once made a celebrity thanks to her daring space trip - but suffered a tragic end not long afterwards.
'Felicette' - later dubbed 'Felix' - blasted off into orbit as part of the French rocket programme of the 1960s.
She was found as a stray Parisian street cat and was the first cat to go to space when she took part in a 15-minute orbit of the Earth in 1963.
A number of animals had gone into space before Felicette managed the feat, most infamously was the Russian dog Laika.
She was launched into space but died during the attempt from overheating. Felicette, on the other hand, was guided safely back to Earth.
Up until her flight, the French space programme had only managed to send rats in to space
'C341', as she was originally, and perhaps unromantically known, was catapulted to a point 100 miles above the Earth from a launch pad in the Sahara Desert.
Weighing only 2.5kg, she reportedly had a "calm demeanour" and became a celebrity after her heroic return.
Sentimentality did not get in the way of the French scientists, however, who promptly euthanised her two months later so they could study how a brain reacted to space travel.
Space historian Robert Pearlman told Gizmodo: "The effort that led to launching humans into space - and then ultimately to the moon - was the space race between the United States and the Russians."
He added: "[France] is a partner through the European Space Agency and directly connected to NASA and the ISS, but French astronauts have typically launched on Russian or American rockets.
"So Félicette doesn’t have a path to that larger history, [unlike American or Soviet animals]."
Felicette's achievements were eventually acknowledged 54 years after she rocketed up to the top of the atmosphere.
Matthew Serge Guy, from London, is a creative director and fan of space cats and he set up a fund for the memorial to be created. It now stands at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France
A torrent of generous donations in 2017 led to over £48,000 being raised to fund the project
Guy said: "Over the last 54 years, the story of the first and only cat to go to space has been largely forgotten. She deserves a proper memorial.
"Although other animals in space, such as Laika the dog and Ham the chimpanzee, are well-known within popular culture and have lasting memorials, very few people are aware that a cat went to space at all."
