Von Braun's mice

[Terrance]

	He told of his early concern fro the psychological effects
of space travel. In 1931, while studying at the Institute of
Technology at Zurich, he and an American medical student
there decided to explore the results of high acceleration on
mammalian anatomy. Unable to construct a centrifuge large
enough for humans, the settled for laboratory mice. The
device was crude but capable of putting the mice under high
g's--too high. Indeed, Wernher was ejected from his
immaculate Swiss boardinghouse room when his landlady
discovered a ring of mouse blood on the pristine walls. 

	The German scientist then shared a story of how he had
continued these anatomical studies in the course of the a-4
launches. Two mice were picked from a nearby medical
laboratory near Peenemunde to be given rides in the nose
cone of the one big rocket. They would be the first
creatures on earth to experience supersonic flight and to go
out of the atmosphere. One of the mice was excited about it
all and felt proud to be a part of this great experiment.
But the other was less enthralled. 

"At the end," said the less happy rodent, we're going to
crash into earth at very high speed and die." 

"Perhaps that is true," responded the proud pioneer, but I
can't help thinking it beats working in the cancer ward." 

As Von Braun inhaled his third shot of bourbon and sipped 
the beer chaser with a repressed smile....

>From *Aces Wild: The Race for Mach 1* by Al Blackburn