On This July 4, Pause to Remember the NASA Chimps

Nasa chimps earn Florida comforts after taking a punishing step for Mankind - Times Online: "“When the astronauts came back from their space missions they received ticker-tape parades and were rightfully considered heroes. But the chimps were forgotten and relegated along with their descendants to biomedical research laboratories,” Jen Feuerstein, the sanctuary director, said.

As America marks the 40th anniversary of man’s first footsteps on the Moon, Marty and friends rely solely on charity to support their retirement. Nasa and the US Government have never donated a penny towards Save the Chimps’ annual $4 million (�2.5 million) budget. But astronauts have — among them Bob Crippen, 71, who piloted the first orbital test flight of the space shuttle in 1981, commanded three subsequent shuttle missions and served as a director of Nasa’s shuttle programme in the 1990s."