Ham Space Chimp
Later enos flew before before john glenn orbited the earth.
Ham space chimp. Ham was the real unwitting hero of the space race and he certainly paved the way for human space travel. Before moving to the north carolina zoo. On january 31 1961 ham became the first chimpanzee in space. A year later a chimp named enos rode the mercury space capsule twice around the planet two months before john glenn made his orbit.
He spent rest of his life in washington dc national zoo and north carolina zoo until his death on january 19 1983. Ham july 1956 january 19 1983 also known as ham the chimp and ham the astrochimp was a chimpanzee and the first hominid launched into space on 31 january 1961 as part of americas space programhams name is an acronym for the lab which prepared him for his historic mission the holloman aerospace medical center. Space programs project mercury. He splashed down in the atlantic ocean sixty miles from the recovery ship and experienced a total of 66 minutes of weightlessness during a 165 minute flight.
Ham lived out the next 17 years of his life in the national zoo in washington dc. The space chimps or astrochimps hold a special place in the hearts of everyone at save the chimps. It was the plight of the air force chimps the chimpanzees used in the early days of space research and their descendants that inspired our late founder dr. He appeared on several us television programs tv shows and several documentary films following events of his mission.
On january 31 1961 the first space chimp was launched. Ham fitted into a special biopack couch prior to flight to space. In this nasa picture. This was the united states first human spaceflight under project mercury which owes its great success to the.
Ham the first chimp in space and the subject of this photo preceded the first american in space alan shepherd. Ham 1957 january 19 1983 also known as ham the chimp and ham the astrochimp was a chimpanzee and the first hominid launched into spaceon january 31 1961 ham flew on the mercury redstone 2 mission part of the us. Following hams mission in may 1961 astronaut alan shepard was launched into space aboard freedom 7. Hams name is an acronym for the laboratory that prepared him for his historic missionthe holloman aerospace medical center located.
Three months after his flight into space astronaut alan shepard followed him.