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One Small Step...the story of the space chimps |
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Ham
 In 1959, a chimpanzee named Ham (Holloman Aero Medical )was captured in Africa and shipped to Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Ham was assigned to Holloman's Aeromedical Lab and trained to participate in NASA's Mercury Program. Specifically, Ham was trained to operate a relatively simple control panel for use during a Mercury Redstone sub-orbital flight.
Ham was three years old when he was officially selected as one of
the possible chimps for the MR-2 sub-orbital mission. He and five
other chimps were shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 2,
1961. About 48 hours prior to launch, Ham was selected as the
chimp for the mission and on January 31, 1962,
he was fitted into a hermetically sealed couch, placed in the Mercury
capsule, and loaded atop a Redstone rocket. Countdown to launch
proceeded, the boosters engaged, and at 11:54 a.m. Ham was sent
rocketing into outer space.
The lift off and entry into
space went smoothly but at T+2 minutes
and 18 seconds the Redstone escape rocket fired too soon and
acceleration increased to 17.0 g's - about 10 g's more then anticipated
at that time. Despite the increased speed Ham performed his required tasks with
great accuracy during the 16 and a half minute, 363 nautical mile
sub-orbital flight.
During re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere the Mercury capsule
overheated but telemetry assured the ground monitors that Ham was okay.
He plunged deep into the Atlantic Ocean, was recovered at 3:40 p.m., E.S.T.,
and taken to a waiting recovery vessel. Ham was given a physical examination
and was pronounced fatigued but medically sound.
After his examination, Ham was photographed by Air Force and NASA
personnel. He appears to be grinning, happy with the anticipation of
an apple. A few days after his flight NASA personnel tried to get
Ham back into his flight couch for press photos - he wouldn't go
near it.
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| One Small Step Early History Ham Enos Roll Call CCCC |
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