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Rhesus monkey Sam, who flew suborbitally on Little Joe 2 in 1959, gives a military salute In total, more than thirty monkey astronauts have flown into space, each once. Backup monkeys also underwent a full training course. In the United States, monkeys were launched into space from 1948 to 1961, and one flight each in 1969 and 1985, in France in 1967, in Argentina in 1969-1970, in the Soviet Union and Russia in 1983-1996, and in Iran since 2011. Most of the monkeys were under anesthesia until landing. The animals had various sensors implanted in their muscles and tendons, which recorded EMG activity of their muscles and movements. They also had electrodes implanted in their brains. More than half of the monkeys that participated in the US launches in the 1940s and 1950s died during or shortly after the flights. Monkeys launched in the 1980s and later generally survived.