Thanks for the post, it was an interesting read. It's too bad he wasn't able to pursue the "science" further instead of it being co-opted by military.

"I asked my wife if she would make a parachute. She asked, 'What are you going to bring down?' I said about the mouse and how we wanted to retrieve it safely. 'Over my dead body,' she said. 'You're not launching a mouse into space!'"