Gertrude McCluck was to be the first chicken ever to go to space! Because Gertrude was brave and calm NASA had chosen her out of thousands of chickens. As Gertrude began training in the weightless simulators in Houston, Texas, she attracted public interest and was already becoming a little famous. In the weightless simulators, she thought she had been actually flying and it was magnificent. Gertrude, ready for take-off, was so excited that she ruffled her feathers all the way up the long elevator ride to the launch tower, which was 195 feet above the ground.

In the thirty-story-high space shuttle Gertrude began trembling. Hissing, gurgling, and sputtering out fire like a giant dragon, the space shuttle took off. With the pressure of 3g's, which is three times the force of gravity we feel on Earth, Gertrude was terrified and almost slipped out of her seat belt. Surprisingly she began to lay lots of eggs, which most chickens do not do when frightened. Being in space, however, the eggs cracked, splattered, and floated everywhere.

"Houston, we have a problem!" exclaimed one of the astronauts while the gooey egg whites and yolks were sticking to the controls!

Houston replied that they should strap Gertrude to a nest and fertilize her egg with an injection, which had happily been placed in the space shuttle for emergencies. After plenty of difficulties catching her and tying the chicken down in a weightless atmosphere, the astronauts were greatly relieved when Gertrude became calm again.

Three weeks later while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, Gertrude began to tremble again as the whole spacecraft appeared to be on fire. Inside, however, she could not even feel the heat because the special tiles protected the craft from melting despite some places outside reaching over 2500o Fahrenheit. Next Gertrude heard the roaring of the wind, felt a little vibration, and crack, the baby chick broke out of the egg. All of a sudden gravity pushed the new mom and her newborn into their seats. A few minutes later with a tremendous thump they landed! Now Gertrude McCluck and her baby Houston McCluck were the most famous chickens ever.