1956 BeanO Bubble Gum : The Conquest of Space

The Conquest of Space card series was distributed in 1956 by food and beverage companies in England. Brands observed include BeanO Bubble Gum, Cadet Sweets, and Lipton's Red Label Tea. Each card measures approximately 1.45 x 2.68 inches (37 x 68 mm). The illustrated 50-card collection depicts the history of aircraft from the Montgolfier hot air balloon to the Viking sounding rocket.

 

Viking #9 (Martin RTV-N-12a) was launched into space from White Sands on December 15, 1952. The single-stage rocket reached an apogee of approximately 135 miles (217 km), carrying a 750 lb. experiment package to measure cosmic radiation.

Viking #9 (National Air and Space Museum)

The "First Space Travellers" card depicts the launch of Aeromed 3 at Holloman Air Force Base on May 21, 1952. The Aerobee RTV-A-1 rocket carried two Capuchin monkeys named Patricia and Mike, and two white mice named Mildred and Albert. Aeromed 3 was fired to a height of 38.6 miles (62.1 km) . Patricia and Mike were the first primates to safely land from such a high altitude. The Aeromed 3 mission is documented in the 1953 U.S. Air Force film Animals in Rocket Flight .

 

The card erroneously reports the altitude as "80 miles above the Earth." The first primates to survive spaceflight were two macaques named Miss Able and Miss Baker. On May 28, 1959, the monkeys rode a PGM-19 Jupiter missile to an apogee of about 300 miles.

Aerobee X-8 RTV-A-1 (National Museum of the USAF)