Project Mercury was launched to put American astronauts in space. But NASA wanted to put a chimpanzee in space first to determine if a human could perform tasks in space. Ham was born in Cameroon, probably in 1957. He was captured by animal trappers and ended up at the Miami Rare Bird Farm. They named him Chang. In 1959, he was transferred to Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo, New Mexico to join other chimps in the space program. He then became known as HAM for Holloman Aero Medical. He and the other Astrochimps were trained to sit in a chair for long hours. Then he was trained to operate levers based on cues from lights. When he performed the task, he was rewarded with a banana pellet. If he didn’t, he got a mild electrical shock. After 18 months of training, he was chosen to be the first to be launched. This happened on Jan. 31, 1961. The flight only lasted 16 ½ minutes. He flew at up to 5,800 MPH and reached a height of 157 miles. He performed all his tasks well. The capsule landed in the ocean and was picked up by a naval warship. HAM was in good spirits, but got cranky when the press wanted her to get back in a chair like she rode in. I can’t blame her for that. In 1963, HAM was put in the National Zoo where he lived alone for 17 years. In 1980, he was sent to the North Carolina Zoo where he spend his last years with other chimps. He died in 1983 at around 26 years old.
https://savethechimps.org/ham-space-chimp/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_(chimpanzee)
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