SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in Pacific carrying 12 moustronauts

Re: Multi-use vehicle

Wait, are you saying that people will be returning to Earth preceded by their own flaming poo??

Re: Deja Vu

Some guys even went to the Moon. I remember watching the grainy B&W video.

I'm baffled. There is even an old wiki article

What is the real reason for these experiments?

Long term LEO radiation experiments have also been done on Mir, Spacelab and ISS.

On 31 August 1950, the U.S. launched a mouse into space (137 km) aboard a V-2 (the Albert V flight, which, unlike the Albert I-IV flights, did not have a monkey), but the rocket disintegrated because the parachute system failed.[5] The U.S. launched several other mice in the 1950s.

On 22 July 1951, the Soviet Union launched the R-1 IIIA-1 flight, carrying the dogs Tsygan (Russian: Цыган, "Gypsy") and Dezik (Russian: Дезик) into space, but not into orbit.[6] These two dogs were the first living higher organisms successfully recovered from a spaceflight.[6] Both space dogs survived the flight, although one would die on a subsequent flight. The U.S. launched mice aboard spacecraft later that year; however, they failed to reach the altitude for true spaceflight.

On 3 November 1957, the second-ever orbiting spacecraft carried the first animal into orbit, the dog Laika, launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft (nicknamed 'Muttnik' in the West). Laika died during the flight, as was intended because the technology to return from orbit had not yet been developed. At least 10 other dogs were launched into orbit and numerous others on sub-orbital flights before the historic date of 12 April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

On 13 December 1958, a Jupiter IRBM, AM-13, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a United States Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named Gordo on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo was lost. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10G of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40G of reentry at 10,000 miles per hour. The nose cone sank 1,302 nautical miles (2,411 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered.

Re: Deja Vu

In fairness, though, most of these in-orbit bio experiments are not very good science. Their main function is to make the public think that the manned space program is producing some scientific return-on-investment. Pretty much the only useful bio research in orbit is monitoring the astronauts themselves as to how their bodies degenerate under microgravity/enhanced radiation conditions, and what techniques might ameliorate that. And, of course, how to prevent or stop space-sickness, which still affects 1/3 to 1/2 of astronauts IIRC.

Re: What's in it for the mice?

Nothing like clogging up the ventilation system with cat hair... Then again, if the cat coughs up a hair ball, it could be interesting to watch it fly about.