>>40982623
She is known only as 'Jing'. Though it is unclear if that was her real name or some kind of nickname given to her by those working at NASA. Basically acquired easily from a culture that undervalued and often discarded girls. NASA didn't value her much either, not being American. It was decided a Chinese girl would be a good candidate given average size and IQ. Jing was more specifically selected for her size, temperament, and tested intelligence.
This all started to unravel a couple of years ago when a woman working for NASA at the time, guilty about her part in it, spilled the beans. She was put in charge of Jing's care in the lead up to the mission. She wasn't supposed to know all the details and just take her to training during the day, but she knew more than she was supposed to. It wasn't that hard for her to put two and two together for the rest. She didn't 'know', but she 'knew'.
Based on her testimony, suspicions, and with her help, other investigators managed to dig up surviving documentation, references, and other evidence. It's some depressing inhumane shit when you put the full story together. Jing clearly existed, was known to people at NASA, veiled references were made to her before and during the mission, and she was never seen again after the mission launched.
Basically they already had a capsule designed for some kind of animal, some kind of primate most likely, so it didn't take much modification or extra weight to put her in that.
>>40982647
Yeah no kidding. People at NASA were still zealously advocating for future missions at the time, so likely fanatically believed the US would dominate space and the moon, giving them plenty of opportunity to retrieve/dispose of her body later. The tragically ironic part is since the Apollo program ended, the data they collected wasn't even used. But now they are in this pickle and the 'space race' now is to cover it up long enough to get to her before someone else does.