The capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight, but Ham's space suit prevented him from suffering any harm. He was extracted from the water by a helicopter before he could drown. Ham ended up landing over 130 miles from where he was predicted to land. These couple of mishaps led to even more problems for Ham and his capsule during their return to earth. In reality the spacecraft carrying Ham reached an altitude of over 150 miles and speeds topping out at over 5,000 miles per hour. The parameters for the altitude and the speed of this mission were supposed to be a precise 115 miles from launch and with speeds topping out at 4,400 miles per hour. The flight did not go one hundred percent as they had planned. He had eighteen months of rigorous training, and even if something were to go wrong, Ham's vital signs and tasks were monitored by sensors and computers on Earth. He was fairly young but he was more than prepared for this mission. : 314–315Īt the time of the flight Ham was only a three and a half year old chimpanzee. On January 31, 1961, Ham was secured in a Project Mercury mission designated MR-2 and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a suborbital flight. Ham receives an apple following his successful recovery from the Atlantic Through the observations of Ham scientists would gain a better understanding of the possibility of sending humans into space. Some of their similarities include: similar organ placement inside the body and having a response time to a stimulus that was very similar to that of humans (just a couple of deciseconds slower). One of the reasons that a chimpanzee was chosen for this mission was because of their many similarities to humans. However, none of these other animals could provide the significant insight that Ham could provide. While Ham was the first great ape, he was not the first animal to go to space, as there were many other types of animals that left Earth's atmosphere before him. 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 light electric shock to the soles of his feet, while a correct response earned him a banana pellet. Brady at Holloman Air Force Base Aero-Medical Field Laboratory to do simple, timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds. Training and mission Launch of Ham's mission, JanuHam and his handlerīeginning in July 1959, the two-year-old chimpanzee was trained under the direction of neuroscientist Joseph V. Ham being given a physical examination by a doctor in 1961. 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. 65 before his flight, and only renamed "Ham" upon his successful return to Earth. : 245–246 Officially, Ham was known as No. After evaluation, the number of candidates was reduced to 18, then to six, including Ham. There were originally 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at Holloman. He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in July 1959. Ham was born in July 1957 in French Cameroon (now Cameroon), captured by animal trappers and sent to the Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida. His name was also in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton "Ham" Blackshear. Ham's name is an acronym for the laboratory that prepared him for his historic mission-the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, southwest of Alamogordo. On January 31, 1961, Ham flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. Ham (July 1957 – January 19, 1983), a chimpanzee also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first great ape launched into space. Ham in January 1961, just before his suborbital flight into space
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