This picture of the monkey that Iran reportedly launched into space successfully broke hearts across the Internet on Monday. The look of distress on the immobilized, unnammed primate's face suggested that the creature would never be the same after the trauma. "I saw the monkey -- the pictures of the poor little monkey preparing to go to space," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "Who would do such a thing, to a monkey?" marveled The Awl's Ken Layne. 

In fact, we did. The United States, the Soviet Union, and France sent all manner of monkeys -- rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, chimpanzees, pig-tailed macaques -- into space during the height of the Cold War in preparation for the missions that would eventually carry humans into space. "Iran is repeating the wasteful and cruel mistakes that marked the darkest days of the space race," the animal rights group PETA declared on Monday.

Many of the monkeys launched into orbit in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s did not survive -- there were explosions, failed parachutes, and creatures lost at sea. But those who did often went on to become celebrities -- mini-mascots for space programs in their youths, with cushy zoo retirements in their old ages. Here are some of their stories. Mashregnews.ir

Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, waits in her bio-pack couch before her flight on the Jupiter AM-18 rocket. The Jupiter AM-18 mission, launched on May 28, 1959, carried Miss Baker and an American-born rhesus monkey, Able, into sub-orbit. Both monkeys were recovered in good condition, making Jupiter AM-18 the first mission to successfully carry animals into space and back.

NASA

Able is readied for placement into a capsule for a preflight test. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

This photograph shows Able after the recovery of the Jupiter rocket's nose cone by the U.S.S. Kiowa. Though Able survived the flight, she died a few days later from anaesthesia complications during a procedure to remove an electrode. 

NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center 

Able's body was preserved and is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

NASA

Miss Baker went on to live more than 20 years after her trip into space. She became something of a minor space celebrity, and her grave, located at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., is often decorated with bananas by those coming to pay their respects.

NASA 

Sam, a two-year-old rhesus monkey, and his handler after Sam's flight on the Little Joe 2 spacecraft on Dec. 4, 1959. Sam was named after the School of Aviation Medicine, in San Antonio, Texas.

NASA

Sam in his fiberglass contoured couch. After his flight, Sam was kept for observation for several years at Brooks Air Force Base, but eventually retired to live out the rest of his life at the San Antonio Zoo.

NASA

Miss Sam, a six-pound rhesus monkey and Sam's mate, is placed in a container for her Jan. 21, 1960 flight aboard the Little Joe 1B. 

NASA

Miss Sam stares out from her contoured couch prior to a test flight.

NASA

One of two squirrel monkeys selected to fly aboard the science module of Spacelab 3 in Challenger's cargo bay is tended to on Earth prior to its flight in space, which would last from April 29 to May 6, 1985.

NASA

Astronaut William E. Thornton observes one of the two squirel monkeys aboard the Spacelab 3 science module.

NASA

America's first human astronaut Alan Shepard is photographed with Ham, a chimpanzee who preceded him in space by five months with a sub-orbital flight aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on Jan. 31, 1961. Ham's successful mission paved the way for Shepard's mission on May 5, 1961. -/AFP/Getty Images

Ham is greeted by the commander of the recovery ship U.S.S. Donner upon splashing back to earth. After his flight, Ham -- whose name stood for the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center -- spent 17 years at Washington, D.C.'s national zoo before moving to a zoo in North Carolina. He died at age 26, and his remains were buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.

NASA