Monkey’s Space Capsule Lands in Wrong Place

MOSCOW — A Soviet space capsule carrying a mischievous monkey returned to Earth today as scheduled but missed its designated landing place by thousands of miles, Tass press agency said.

Tass said the Cosmos 1887 spacecraft landed this morning near Mirny, a city located in a diamond-rich area of Siberia.

The agency said Mirny was not “the predetermined landing site.” The capsule carrying Yerosha (Troublemaker) and another monkey, Drema (Lazybones), had been scheduled to land in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

The brief dispatch did not give the condition of either monkey. The omission of such information as well as the delay in reporting the landing were unusual.

Other Animals on Board

Landings of space capsules usually are reported within one hour by Tass, but the initial dispatch on the return of the vessel was distributed 10 hours after the event.

The capsule, which was launched Sept. 29 to test the effects of space flight on animals, also carried white rats, insects and organisms as small as paramecia.

On the fifth day of the flight, television monitors showed that Yerosha had freed his left front paw from its restraint and that he had removed a nameplate from his helmet.

Other data last week indicated that Yerosha’s food tube was blocked, and ground control increased his supply of concentrated fruit juices.

Yevgeny Ilyin, scientific director of the program, said last week that the increased flow of juice was designed to provide Yerosha with enough calories to withstand the increased strains of landing.

The Soviet Union, which has sent monkeys into space on previous missions, has in the past vivisected the animals for research after their return to earth.

Scientists say Yerosha will be spared, after his space antics had won the hearts of the Soviet public.