The decision to use the mechanical mice was made after two sets of live mice had died, raising the ire of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In one launch, the mice died prior to liftoff after they ingested bits of paint sprayed on their cage (believing the mice might be asleep, engineers went up and banged on the capsule, even mimicking a cat’s meow). Killing mice in a program that was ostensibly supposed to demonstrate a life-support system was, in general, rather bad publicity,
