1960 Coop : Conquête de L’espace Voyages Interplanétaire

Conquête de L’espace Voyages Interplanétaire (Conquest of Space Interplanetary Travel) was published in 1960 by Coop. The card text and album descriptions are printed in French. The series was distributed with bars of Coop chocolate. The cards were also available by mail order from the Société Générale des Coopératives de Consommation in Paris.

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' (NACA) test pilot Albert Scott Crossfield is featured on cards #110 and #117. On November 20, 1953, Scott Crossfield piloted the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket to a speed of 1,291 mph (2,078 km/h, Mach 2.005), becoming the first person to to travel at twice the speed of sound. The X-15-1 and X-15-2 experimental aircraft were first piloted by Crossfield in 1959.

Voyages Interplanétaire predates human spaceflight, but several test animals are included. Soviet space dogs Tsygan (Цыган) and Dezik (Дезик) are featured on card #111. On August 15, 1951, the two strays rode a R-1V rocket to an altitude of about 68 miles before parachuting to Earth.

Laika (Лайка) became the first animal to orbit the Earth on November 3, 1957. Laika died from overheating after the third orbit, about 5–7 hours into the mission. The Sputnik 2 spacecraft reentered the atmosphere on April 14, 1958.

Card #106 depicts an image of Miss Able, a rhesus macaque that travelled into space on May 28, 1959. Miss Able and Miss Baker travelled aboard a PGM-19 Jupiter missile to an apogee of about 300 miles (483 km) . The Bio-Flight No. 2 payload included fruit fly larvae, human blood, mold spores, and fish eggs. The nose cone was successfully recovered, but Miss Able died from anesthesia during a post-flight operation on June 1, 1959. The preserved body is held by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum .