# Cats land unharmed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 11, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020 "2009-08-11T02:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/21 "2009-08-13T16:36:13Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Having recently struggled to stuff a cat into a carrier, I would love to see that footage. As would I ! ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/22 "2009-08-13T17:37:53Z")
**Powers** said: > [@](#): > > md20000 said that they weren’t going to take the Vomit Comet up just for this one experiment, so they used a fighter. What part are you disputing? Seems I misread what was stated. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/23 "2009-08-13T18:17:10Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > no, the real question is … > what happens to a cat on a treadmill ? [You asked, you recieved.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs5PBPd3AHQ) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/24 "2009-08-14T09:01:34Z")
OK… 22 replies and everyone so far is FAIL. The OP doesn’t take exception to the use of the term “sadist”, but rather to the term “moron”. > [@JAckH](#): > > Calling them sadists, don’t have a problem with that because it has a foundation. Really, you just wanted to insult someone because you don’t like what they did, I don’t care about that, go ahead – but the baseless attacks on their intelligence makes you look like a moron yourself. IMO, anyone that thinks it’s a good idea, or even an acceptable idea, to drop 2 living, flightless animals from 800 feet up, is a moron. Just as anyone who thinks it’s a good idea, or an acceptable one even, to dry the baby in the microwave is a moron, or… I’m sure you can come up with your own examples. Stupid people do stupid things for stupid reasons, and we can safely call those people morons. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/25 "2009-08-14T10:22:14Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > OK… 22 replies and everyone so far is FAIL. The OP doesn’t take exception to the use of the term “sadist”, but rather to the term “moron”. I may have initially missed it but I think posts #5 and #7 address that very point. You may now grade yourself for reading comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/26 "2009-08-14T10:48:35Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > OK… 22 replies and everyone so far is FAIL. The OP doesn’t take exception to the use of the term “sadist”, but rather to the term “moron”. > > IMO, anyone that thinks it’s a good idea, or even an acceptable idea, to drop 2 living, flightless animals from 800 feet up, is a moron. Just as anyone who thinks it’s a good idea, or an acceptable one even, to dry the baby in the microwave is a moron, or… I’m sure you can come up with your own examples. Stupid people do stupid things for stupid reasons, and we can safely call those people morons. It’s not necessarily “stupid” at all. It’s deliberately mean, or it’s recklessly so, but meaness isn’t limited to people with less intelligence, sad to say. Sometimes, even Vice-Presidents are mean. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/27 "2009-08-14T10:51:13Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Then there’s the famous story about the guys in NASA who decided to find out what a cat would do in zero G? Which way does he orient himself if there’s no gravity? They weren’t making a special flight of the 707 Vomit Comet just to give a cat a ride, so they mounted a camera in a fighter cockpit and instructed the pilot to put the jet in a zero-G parabolic arch and then release the cat. They have some fantastic footage of a fighter jock trying to shake a cat loose from his arm, and the cat hanging on for dear life. Either this story is apocryphal or no one involved had ever been in an enclosed space with a scared cat. I’m going for the former. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that any one would be so stoopid as to not understand that releasing a live cat into a fighter cockpit would result in total panic and much clawing and that the fighter would be thereby endangered. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/28 "2009-08-14T11:21:24Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Either this story is apocryphal or no one involved had ever been in an enclosed space with a scared cat. I’m going for the former. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that any one would be so stoopid as to not understand that releasing a live cat into a fighter cockpit would result in total panic and much clawing and that the fighter would be thereby endangered. Yes, but if true, science was the true winner because now we know for certain what a cat will do in zero g. I hope those smart-thinking boys got a raise. ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/29 "2009-08-14T12:16:53Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > OK… 22 replies and everyone so far is FAIL. The OP doesn’t take exception to the use of the term “sadist”, but rather to the term “moron”. > > IMO, anyone that thinks it’s a good idea, or even an acceptable idea, to drop 2 living, flightless animals from 800 feet up, is a moron. Just as anyone who thinks it’s a good idea, or an acceptable one even, to dry the baby in the microwave is a moron, or… I’m sure you can come up with your own examples. Stupid people do stupid things for stupid reasons, and we can safely call those people morons. Ummm your post is almost identical to mine at #14… so I don’t think you actually read all of the 22 posts that you deem FAILED… later pointed out by Gyrate… ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/30 "2009-08-15T15:23:52Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > [You asked, you recieved.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs5PBPd3AHQ) Neither of them got up enough speed to take off, I notice. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/31 "2009-08-17T16:32:22Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Either this story is apocryphal or no one involved had ever been in an enclosed space with a scared cat. I’m going for the former. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that any one would be so stoopid as to not understand that releasing a live cat into a fighter cockpit would result in total panic and much clawing and that the fighter would be thereby endangered. In the days before the internet, when fact-checking was difficut - pine trees polluted more than cars, my friend’s uncle had a 200-mpg Ford, NASA faked the moon landing so OJ never made it to Mars, and some guy with a hook was terrorizing the neighbourhood lovers’ lane where a cement-filled Cadillac was parked. Still, it’s a good story, worth repeating for the laughs. Especially when the scientist tells the pilot “then just release the cat…” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/32 "2009-08-17T16:51:08Z")
There’s a current commercial for [howstuffworks.com](http://howstuffworks.com) that shows a cat in a customized scuba suit, which I guess is a fairly good approximation of zero-g, or at least NASA considers (or once considered) it so. The cat’s not really doing much of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/33 "2009-08-17T20:48:26Z")
Yes, NASA routinely uses a pool for astronaut training. Neutral buoyancy is the principle of adding balloons or weights such that an object floats completely submerged at a constant height. The water supports the weight and resembles zero gravity in some respects. The biggest difference is the drag from the water preventing as easy of movement, and inertial effects aren’t quite the same. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/34 "2009-08-18T17:50:48Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Yes, NASA routinely uses a pool for astronaut training. Neutral buoyancy is the principle of adding balloons or weights such that an object floats completely submerged at a constant height. The water supports the weight and resembles zero gravity in some respects. The biggest difference is the drag from the water preventing as easy of movement, and inertial effects aren’t quite the same. The other problem is, you will still have the residual effect of gravity; your inner ears will know which way is up; nasal fluids etc. will figure out which way they’re going… the cat in the scuba suit will probably feel that it is resting on some cat-shaped bed that is holding it up. I suppose for exercises like assembling space stations, or repairing satellites, it will give some good practice to float in a pool. But for the experience of free fall, probably nothing beats free fall. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/35 "2009-08-19T06:50:39Z")
YouTube vid on zero gravity cat: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MvU9GZjBTzs/hqdefault.jpg "NASA's zero-gravity cat astronaut") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvU9GZjBTzs) There’s some footage of an astronaut or scientist trying to shake the cat loose from her arm. Scientists observed [four types of movement](http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ407506&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ407506) during kitty free fall, presumably a reflection of [cat righting reflex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_righting_reflex). ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020/36 "2009-08-19T16:23:44Z")
They’re flinging that cat pretty hard - must be dog lovers. It also look like a declawed cat. In the vomit comet. I guessed they learned from the first iteration of the experiment. You can see where it’s winding itself around a string or something, several times - it’s doing the V-Roll maneuver to change orientation, IIRC the Scientfic American article. Bend body about 45 degrees, roll both ends at the same time or whatever it was - a trick to changing orientation in zero-G. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-land-unharmed/506020.md?page=1)