Ham (chimpanzee)

Uncommon card · No. 109069

Ham (July 1957 – January 19, 1983), a chimpanzee also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first ape launched into space. On January 31, 1961, Ham flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury. Ham was known as "No. 65" before he safely returned to Earth. His name was likely in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton "Ham" Blackshear. It was also 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.

Read on Wikipedia · Image NASA, Public domain