Ham ( chimpanzee ) - Wikipedia Ham ( chimpanzee ) Ham Ham in January 1961, before his flight into space Species Common chimpanzee Sex Male 1957 French Cameroons January 19, 1983 ( aged 25 - 26 ) North Carolina Zoo, North Carolina, U.S. Known for First hominid in space Ham ( 1957 -- January 19, 1983 ), also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was a chimpanzee and the first hominid launched into space, on January 31, 1961, as part of America 's space program. Ham 's name is an acronym for the lab that prepared him for his historic mission -- the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, southwest of Alamogordo. His name was also in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton `` Ham '' Blackshear. Contents 1 Early life 2 Training and mission 3 Later life 4 Popular culture 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Early life Ham was born in 1957 in French Cameroons ( present day Cameroon ), captured by animal trappers and sent to Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida. He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959. There were originally 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at Holloman. After evaluation, the number of candidates was reduced to 18, then to 6, including Ham. Officially, Ham was known as No. 65 before his flight, and only renamed `` Ham '' upon his successful return to Earth. This was reportedly because officials did not want the bad press that would come from the death of a `` named '' chimpanzee if the mission were a failure. Among his handlers, No. 65 had been known as `` Chop Chop Chang ''. Training and mission A `` hand shake '' welcome. After his flight on a Mercury - Redstone rocket, chimpanzee Ham is greeted by the commander of the recovery ship, USS Donner ( LSD - 20 ). Beginning in July 1959, the two - year - old chimpanzee was trained under the direction of neuroscientist Joseph V. Brady at Holloman Air Force Base Aero Medical Field Laboratory to do simple, timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds. During his pre-flight training, Ham was taught to push a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light ; failure to do so resulted in an application of a mild electric shock to the soles of his feet, while a correct response earned him a banana pellet. What differentiates Ham 's mission from all the other primate flights to this point is that he was not merely a passenger, and the results from his test flight led directly to the mission Alan Shepard made on May 5, 1961 aboard Freedom 7. On January 31, 1961, Ham was secured in a Project Mercury mission labeled MR - 2 and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a suborbital flight. Ham had his vital signs and tasks monitored using computers on Earth. The capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight, but Ham 's space suit prevented him from suffering any harm. Ham 's lever - pushing performance in space was only a fraction of a second slower than on Earth, demonstrating that tasks could be performed in space. Ham 's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship later that day. His only physical injury was a bruised nose. His flight was 16 minutes and 39 seconds long. Later life Ham 's grave at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., before joining a small group of captive chimps at North Carolina Zoo. After his death in 1983, Ham 's body was turned over to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology for necropsy. Following the necropsy, the plan was to have him stuffed and placed on display at the Smithsonian, following Soviet precedent with pioneering space dogs Belka and Strelka. However, this plan was abandoned after a negative public reaction. Ham 's remains, minus the skeleton, were buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Colonel John Stapp gave the eulogy at the memorial service. The skeleton is held in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Ham 's backup, Minnie, was the only female chimpanzee trained for the Mercury program. After her role in the Mercury program ended, Minnie became part of an Air Force chimpanzee breeding program, producing nine offspring and helping to raise the offspring of several other members of the chimpanzee colony. She was the last surviving astro - chimpanzee and died at age 41 on March 14, 1998. Popular culture A 2001 film titled Race to Space was a fictionalized version of Ham 's story about sending chimpanzees to space. The chimpanzee in the movie was named Mac. In 2007, a French documentary was made in association with Animal Planet called `` Ham - Astrochimp # 65 '', which tells the story of Ham as witnessed by Jeff. Jeff took care of Ham until his departure from the Air Force Base after the success of the mission ( also known as Ham : A Chimp into Space / Ham, un chimpanzé dans l'espace. A 2008 animated film entitled Space Chimps was about sending chimpanzees to space. The main character and hero of the movie was named Ham III, the grandson of Ham. In 2008, Bark Hide & Horn, a folk - rock band from Portland, Oregon, released a song titled, `` Ham the Astrochimp, '' detailing the journey of Ham from his perspective. In the 1983 film adaption of The Right Stuff, the launch and splashdown of Ham 's space flight is dramatized. The Mercury astronauts are asked by the traveling press corps which one thinks they will be first into space. After a montage showing the first successful launch and ocean recovery of a mission rocket, it is revealed that Ham the Chimp is the first `` American '' in space. In the `` I Dream of Jeannie '' episode `` Fly Me to the Moon '' Larry Storch played an astrochimp named Sam who was accidentally turned into a human. See also Animals in space Enos : First chimpanzee to orbit the earth Félicette : First cat in space Monkeys and apes in space One Small Step : The Story of the Space Chimps ( 2008 documentary ) 1960s portal References ^ Jump up to : `` Chimp survives 420 - mile ride into space ''. Lewiston Morning Tribune. ( Idaho ). Associated Press. February 1, 1961. p. 1. Jump up ^ `` Chimp sent out on flight over Atlantic ''. The Bulletin. ( Bend, Oregon ). UPI. January 31, 1961. p. 1. Jump up ^ Swenson Jr., Loyd S. ; Grimwood, James M. ; Alexander, Charles C. ( 1989 ). `` This New Ocean : A History of Project Mercury ''. NASA History Series. NASA Special Publication - 4201. Retrieved 10 November 2017. Jump up ^ Brown, Laura J. ( November 13, 1997 ). `` Obituary : NASA Medical director Hamilton ' Ham ' Blackshear ''. Florida Today. Retrieved 10 November 2017. ^ Jump up to : Gray, Tara ( 1998 ). `` A Brief History of Animals in Space ''. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2008 - 05 - 12. ^ Jump up to : Nicholls, Henry ( 7 February 2011 ). `` Cameroon 's Gagarin : The Afterlife of Ham the Astrochimp ''. ^ Jump up to : Burgess, Colin ; Chris Dubbs ( 2007 ) ( 2007 - 01 - 24 ). Animals in Space : From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer - Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Springer. ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 36053 - 9. OCLC 77256557. Jump up ^ Hanser, Kathleen ( 10 November 2015 ). `` Mercury Primate Capsule and Ham the Astrochimp ''. airandspace.si.edu. Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018. ^ Jump up to : Haraway, Donna. Primate Visions : Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science ( New York : Routledge, 1989 ). Jump up ^ `` Chop Chop Chang Commemorative Patch ( HAM the Astrochimp ) ''. Retrorocket Emblems. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018. Jump up ^ House, George ( April -- June 1991 ). `` Project Mercury 's First Passengers ''. Spacelog. Alamogordo, New Mexico : International Space Hall of Fame Foundation. 8 ( 2 ) : 4 -- 5. ISSN 1072 - 8171. OCLC 18058232. ^ Jump up to : Swenson Jr., Loyd S. ; James M. Grimwood ; Charles C. Alexander ( 1966 ). This New Ocean : A History of Project Mercury. NASA History Series. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. OCLC 00569889. Retrieved 2008 - 05 - 11. ^ Jump up to : Margaret G. Zackowitz ( October 2007 ). `` The Primate Directive ''. National Geographic Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007 - 11 - 12. Retrieved 2008 - 04 - 30. Jump up ^. `` NASA Project Mercury Mission MR - 2 ''. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2008 - 05 - 11. Jump up ^ Ham the astrochimp : hero or victim ?, 2013 - 12 - 16, The Guardian Jump up ^ Roach, Mary ( 2010 ). Packing for Mars : The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Norton. pp. 160 -- 163. ISBN 0393068471. Jump up ^ For Melville, With Love, by Ezra Ace Caraeff, Aug 14, 2008, Portland Mercury Further reading Farbman, Melinda ; Frye Gaillard ( June 2000 ) ( 2000 ). Spacechimp : NASA 's Ape in Space. Countdown to Space. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Publishers. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7660 - 1478 - 7. OCLC 42080118. Brief biography of Ham, aimed at children ages 9 -- 12 Rosenstein, Andrew ( July 2008 ). Flyboy : The All - True Adventures of a NASA Space Chimp. Windham, ME : Yellow Crane Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 9758825 - 2 - 8. A novel about Ham and his trainer. Burgess, Colin ; Dubbs, Chris. Animals in Space : From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer - Praxis Books, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 36053 - 9. Book covering the life and flight of Ham, plus other space animals. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ham the Chimp. Pictures from the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive Who2 profile : Ham the Chimp Animal Astronauts Ham at Find a Grave Trailblazer in Space Newsreel / Documentary about Ham at archive.org In Praise of Ham the Astrochimp in LIFE Ape - related articles Extant ape species Human ( Homo sapiens ) Chimpanzee ( Pan spp. ) Bonobo ( Pan paniscus ) Common chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) Gorilla ( Gorilla spp. ) Western gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla ) Eastern gorilla ( Gorilla beringei ) Orangutan ( Pongo spp. ) Bornean orangutan ( Pongo abelii ) Sumatran orangutan ( Pongo pygmaeus ) Tapanuli orangutan ( Pongo tapanuliensis ) Gibbon ( family : Hylobatidae ) Study of apes Ape language Dian Fossey Birutė Galdikas Jane Goodall Chimpanzee genome project Human genome project Neanderthal genome project Willie Smits Lone Drøscher Nielsen Ian Redmond Elgin Center Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary Borneo Orangutan Survival Legal and social status Personhood Research ban Kinshasa Declaration Great Ape Project Survival Project International Primate Day See also List of individual apes ( non-human ) Apes in space ( non-human ) Bigfoot Bushmeat Chimpanzee -- human last common ancestor List of fictional primates ( non-human ) Great apes Human evolution Monkey Day Mythic humanoids Yeren Yeti Notable non-human apes List of individual apes Monkeys and apes in space List of fictional primates Bonobos Kanzi Nyota Panbanisha Chimpanzees Ai Ayumu Bonzo Pierre Brassau Bubbles Cheeta Congo Enos Gregoire Gua Ham Jiggs Julius Kasakela Chimpanzee Community Lana Little Mama Loulis Lucy Macaco Tião Matthew Hiasl Pan Mitumba Chimpanzee Community Moja J. Fred Muggs Nim Chimpsky Oliver Pankun Santino Sarah Sultan Travis Viki Washoe Gorillas Alfred the Gorilla Babec Binti Jua Bobo Bokito Charles the Gorilla Colo Fatou Gargantua Guy the Gorilla Harambe Ivan Jambo Jenny Jumoke Koko Louis Massa Max Michael Pattycake Pogo Shabani Snowflake Titus Trudy Toto Willie B. Orangutans Abang Ah Meng Azy Bonnie Chantek Jenny Ken Allen Manis Austrian Nonja Malaysian Nonja Sandra Tonda LCCN : sh99005322 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ham_(chimpanzee)&oldid=843549839 '' Categories : 1956 animal births 1983 animal deaths 1961 in spaceflight Animals in space Individual chimpanzees NASA Hidden categories : Articles with ' species ' microformats All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012 Articles with unsourced statements from May 2018 Articles with unsourced statements from August 2012 Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Use American English from January 2014 All Wikipedia articles written in American English Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Български Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Frysk 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Slovenčina کوردی Suomi Svenska ไทย Tiếng Việt 14 more Edit links This page was last edited on 29 May 2018, at 21 : 32. 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Question: when was the first chimp sent into space
Answer: on January 31, 1961