Ham's
Story

Born in July of 1957, Ham spent his very early life in the illegal exotic animal trade before he was purchased by the United States Air Force in 1959 for $457. Before being named Ham upon his return to earth, he was known as No. 65, and even had the nickname of "Chang" among his keepers. Officials feared bad publicity would come from the death of a named chimp during their space expedition, so a number-based naming system seemed best. Ham was originally one of fourty flight candidates. However, the number of possible candidates kept reducing and Ham quickly found himself in the top 18, then standing with the last six contenders.

Each of the chimps being trained on this mission were taught to pull levels in response to beams of light and sound cues. If the correct behavior was displayed in under five seconds, they were rewarded, otherwise, the chimps were given a small electric shock on the bottoms of their feet. They were also put in machines that replicated the G-force of space travel to make sure they were up to the challenge. After a 15 month training period, Ham was chosen as the lucky astro-chimp. He was placed into a craft known as Mercury spacecraft #5, inside of a capsule made of aluminum and fiberglass. His trip to space lasted a total of 16 minutes and 39 seconds.

When Ham came back down to Earth, he landed further in the Ocean than expected, and had a risk of drowning if not for the recovery helicopter showing up on time. He was rescued from the water and placed atop a ship, where it was confirmed that he has successfully made the trip with nothing more than a bruised nose and some dehydration. His lever push in space had been only milliseconds later than his lever push on Earth, confirming that tasks could be performed in space. Ham was retired from NASA in 1963 and was tranferred to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. for 17 years. After, he lived out the rest of his life at the North Carolina zoo until his death in 1983.