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When I was making my feature length documentary (Sputnik Mania -2008) on the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first satellite in orbit by the Soviet Union, Sputnik, I collected hundreds of films and clips from the early days of the NASA space program. One of them which I have posted is the sad story of the street dog Laika who the Russians sent into space on Sputnik 2 in November 1957. The story of Ham the chimp which could've turned out equally horrific as he was put through some very torturous G forces, fortunately did not. Ham the Chimp was a chimpanzee and the first hominid launched into space. His mission was an important part of the human journey to space, specifically for the United States. Ham was born around July 1957. His original name was No. 65, given to him by the laboratory conducting the tests, but he was later named Ham as an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, the Air Force base in New Mexico where the tests were conducted. The name also had a playfully ironic twist, with “HAM“ being short for “Holloman Aero Med.“ Ham was part of Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program of the United States, from its inception in 1958 to its conclusion in 1963. He was selected from a group of 40 chimps to take part in the first test flight before any human took the leap to go into space. Ham's mission, Mercury-Redstone 2, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1961. During his flight, Ham had to perform simple, timed tasks to test whether or not tasks could be performed in space. His capsule experienced higher speeds and reached a higher altitude than planned, but Ham performed his tasks correctly, albeit a little more slowly than on Earth. Despite some minor issues during the flight including problems with his Redstone rocket and Ham having to endure forces almost 15 times greater than terrestrial gravity during re-entry, Ham's mission was deemed successful. His flight helped prove that space travel was safe for humans, paving the way for Alan Shepard to become the first American in space just a few months later, in May 1961. After his mission, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., before moving to the North Carolina Zoo. He died in 1983 at the age of 26. He was buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico. His mission had a significant impact on the future of space travel, proving that it was possible for a living creature to survive the journey. I would like to thank the sponsors who have placed their advertising on my NASA focused clips. Sally Scott. NASA channel. NASA Langley. Nuclear rocket engine. Project Mercury. NASA. Ham the chimp. antares launch. David Hoffman Filmmaker
