In the 1950s, it was unclear whether humans could survive outside Earth – both physically and mentally. The science fiction writer and warfare expert Cordwainer Smith wrote about the psychological pain of being in space.
Plants, insects and animals had been taken to high altitudes in balloons and rockets since the 18th century. The Soviet Union sent the dog Laika into orbit on Sputnik 2 in 1957. She died, but from overheating rather than the effects of space travel itself.
While the USSR focused on dogs, the US turned to chimpanzees as they were the most like humans. The stakes became higher when US President John F. Kennedy promised to land humans on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham made history by becoming the first hominid launched into space. Strapped inside a Mercury space capsule, Ham was rocketed over 250 kilometers into the sky in a suborbital flight that lasted just over 16 minutes from launch to splashdown. Though the historic mission subjected the astrochimp to high amounts of acceleration and tested his ability to perform tasks under pressure, Ham emerged from the capsule safe and sound after splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. But what happened to Ham after his trailblazing trip beyond Earth?
A chimp named Ham
The chimpanzee that would come to be known as Ham was captured from his native home in the jungles of Cameroon in West Africa around 1957 He was brought to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to be part of the United States Air Force’s chimpanzee training program for spaceflight At Holloman, the chimp was given the name “Ham”, an acronym for HHolloman Aero Medical center where the astrochimp training was conducted. Though Ham was by no means the first chimp to be launched on rocket test flights by the United States, he was selected among his peers as the prime candidate for the first American manned orbital spaceflight mission.
Prior to the mission Ham and the other astrochimps underwent rigorous training to prepare them for space travel. They were trained to pull levers in response to flashing lights in order to test their capacity to complete tasks during the zero-gravity conditions of spaceflight. Food pellets were given as rewards for correct responses while mild electric shocks were administered as punishment for incorrect lever pulls. The especially bright and responsive Ham excelled at this lever-pulling task, making him the top choice for the upcoming flight.
##Ham’s suborbital space flight
On January 31, 1961, Ham was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on mission MR-2, the second flight of the Mercury-Redstone 2 spacecraft. During his 16 minute and 39 second flight, Ham’s space capsule reached an altitude of 253 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Ham experienced about 6 minutes of weightlessness during the flight segment between the rocket’s burnout and the beginning of his fall back to Earth.
Strapped inside the capsule, Ham was trained to pull a lever each time a flashing blue light appeared. He underwent testing during the periods of high acceleration during launch and reentry, as well as in the novel condition of zero gravity. Out of 43 total lever pulls, Ham incorrectly responded to the light cue twice. This minor error was attributed to the unfamiliar stresses of spaceflight, a hypothesis supported by Ham’s elevated heart rate and breathing during the flight. Otherwise, Ham aced all parts of the test, demonstrating that tasks could successfully be completed by an astronaut in space.
After reentry, Ham’s capsule landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean around 450 kilometers from the launch site. The astrochimp was recovered with minimal issues aside from having taken on some seawater. After eating an apple and being freed from his space suit and biomedical equipment, Ham was transported back to Cape Canaveral. His historic flight as the first hominid in space made Ham an overnight celebrity.
Ham’s life after spaceflight
Though Ham’s adjustment back to Earth’s gravity and environment was virtually seamless, the effects of his trailblazing flight were long-lasting. His success proved that humans could realistically survive the conditions of spaceflight, paving the way for human orbital missions in the coming years. Alan Shepard became the first American man in space less than three months after Ham’s feat.
After the mission, Ham lived at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. for 17 years. There, he was popularly visited by tourists and school groups eager to see the famous astrochimp. Ham enjoyed a relatively normal life for a zoo chimpanzee, with no noted long-term health effects from his spaceflight. In 1980, he was transported to join a small troop of chimpanzees at the North Carolina Zoo. Ham resided there happily until his death at age 26 from chronic heart failure on January 19, 1983. He was buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.
Though other animals like dogs and mice had traveled to space before Ham, he was the first hominid to journey into the cosmos and return safely to Earth. His success was instrumental to demonstrating that humans could endure suborbital and orbital spaceflight. Ham’s short journey enabled giant leaps for mankind in the Space Age that followed. Today, he remains one of the most famous animals in space history.
Biography of a non-human astronaut
Ham was born in 1957 in a rainforest in Cameroon, which was then a French colony in central Africa. He was caught and taken to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, which has an astronaut school for chimps.
They were taught to pull levers by giving them a banana pellet as a reward and an electric shock to the feet if they didn’t. The chosen chimp would test life support systems and demonstrate that equipment could be operated during spaceflight. Ham showed great aptitude, and was selected the day before the flight.
The Mercury-Redstone rocket took Ham into space on January 31, 1961. He was strapped into a capsule inside the nosecone of the rocket. The rocket travelled at 9,000km/h, and reached an altitude of 251km. The whole flight took 16 minutes from launch to return. NASAThroughout the journey Ham was obliged to pull a lever. He received two shocks for not doing this correctly, out of 50 pulls. He achieved this with a 16cm rectal thermometer in place to monitor his temperature.
He experienced 6. 6 minutes of free fall and 14. 7_g_ of acceleration on descent – much greater than predicted. The biomedical data showed Ham experienced stress during acceleration and deceleration.
Jane Goodall, an expert in primate behavior, said she had never seen such terror in a chimp’s expression. However, Ham was calm when weightless.
Ham made it through the flight, but he almost drowned when the capsule started to fill with water after it landed in the ocean. Fortunately, the helicopter recovery team reached him in time. Ham’s treat on emerging from the spacecraft was an apple, which he devoured eagerly. NASAAfter his flight, Ham lived for 20 years by himself, in a zoo in Washington DC. People wrote him letters, and some were answered by zoo staff signed with Ham’s fingerprint. In 1980 he was sent to another zoo to live with a group of chimps. He died in 1983 at the age of 26.
A proposal to stuff and display his body was abandoned after an outcry. But he did undergo a postmortem. Ham’s flesh was stripped from his skeleton, cremated, and buried at the Space Hall of Fame in Almogordo, New Mexico. The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC retains his bones.
What Happened to Ham in Space? *Sad Story of Ham*
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