First left-handed primate on the Moon? First in space?

Question

The various world space agencies' crewed missions have had a long series of firsts, Yuri Gagarin's first being the grandparent of them all.

Crewed space missions are recognized worldwide as barrier-breakers or at least symbols thereof.

Without regard to any other specifier beyond handedness, I'd like to ask:

Question: Who was the first left-handed primate on the Moon? Who was the first in space?

Regarding the first primate in space, that honor might go to a monkey. The first (rhesus) monkey into space was Albert I, in 1948, launched via a V-2. Two Philippines monkeys were launched in 1952 & a squirrel monkey in 1958 & Ham the chimp in 1961. The handedness of chimps is still being debated. — Fred, Oct 20, 2021 at 7:02
Pretty sure there have not yet been any non-human primates on the Moon... — Darrel Hoffman, Oct 20, 2021 at 14:09

DarkDust · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-20 11:07:10Z

15

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, is left handed.

I think the first lefty in space was Walter Schirra (#9 to space)

In the Apollo era, 1 in 4 astronauts were left-handed. This is much higher than the average left-handedness which is about 1 in 11

DarkDust

12.5k4 gold badges54 silver badges84 bronze badges

answered Oct 20, 2021 at 6:06

8,9671 gold badge35 silver badges49 bronze badges

8

$\begingroup$ That's an interesting statistic. Although there were so few Apollo-era astronauts that it might not be meaningful. If it persisted through the shuttle era and also with cosmonauts it might be interesting to look for a causal relationship. $\endgroup$
– Barmar
Oct 20, 2021 at 14:35
$\begingroup$ Great answer! fyi I've just added a bounty to How exactly does a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster generate thrust?, that Scientific American article looked extremely helpful and a great basis for an answer! $\endgroup$
– uhoh
Oct 21, 2021 at 3:02
$\begingroup$ @Barmar, it's statistically meaningful at the 95% confidence level. Out of a group of 36 Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts, finding nine left-handers is well above the expected range. $\endgroup$
– Mark
Oct 21, 2021 at 20:38
$\begingroup$ @Mark Thanks. Statistics has never been my strong suit. $\endgroup$
– Barmar
Oct 21, 2021 at 20:41

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1