Ham (chimpanzee)
Ham in January 1961, just before his suborbital flight into space | |
| Species | Common chimpanzee |
|---|---|
| Sex | Male |
| Born | July 1957 French Cameroon |
| Died | January 19, 1983 (aged 25) North Carolina Zoo, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Resting place | Museum of Space History, New Mexico |
| Known for | First hominid in space |
Ham (July 1957 – January 19, 1983), a chimpanzee also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first great 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, when he was named after 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. His name was also in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton "Ham" Blackshear.