How Outer Space Dulls an Astronaut’s Mind

n a wet Wednesday in June, 1783, lifted into the sky in the French city of Annonay. It travelled three thousand feet into the air and was carried aloft for nearly two miles, eventually touching down in a vineyard. It flew empty; safety wasn’t a guarantee. A couple of months later, another balloon was sent floating above Paris, this time ferrying a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. The duck was expected to be okay, given its proclivity for flying, but onlookers weren’t so sure about the sheep and rooster, earthbound creatures as they are, like us. After travelling a similar height and distance as the first balloon, the animals were found to be unharmed after landing (although the sheep