Ham the chimpanzee survives a U.S. spaceflight
On this day · 31 January 1961
Before any American rode a rocket, a 37-pound chimp named Ham proved a human could fly to space and come home alive.
On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee called Ham rode a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital hop, becoming the first ape in space. He was no passenger: trained at Holloman Air Force Base, Ham pulled levers in response to flashing lights, showing that an animal could think and act under the punishing forces of launch and weightlessness.
The flight went harder than planned. A booster fault sent the capsule 157 miles high at 5,857 mph, overshooting its target and exposing Ham to roughly 15 g during re-entry. He endured about 6.6 minutes of weightlessness across the brief mission before splashing down in the Atlantic.
Recovered slightly bruised but alert, Ham reportedly shook hands with the rescue crew and readily accepted an apple.
His survival was the green light NASA needed. Just over three months later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard flew nearly the same trajectory aboard Freedom 7 to become the first American in space, his path quietly cleared by a chimpanzee.
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