In the age of feline obsession on the internet, practically nobody knows that a cat has been to space. Félicette’s mission lived in the shadow of the more famous Astrodogs and Astrochimps.
Previously, she was only recognised with a series of commemorative stamps, but these were wrong attributed to a male cat named Felix.
I thought something should be done to right these wrongs. And somehow I managed to raise over £43,000 via Kickstarter to build her a statue.
Later, it was unveiled at International Space University, where it was applauded by actual astronauts. Which was a first for something I’ve done.