Ham, First Chimpanzee in Space, 1961
The famous "hand shake" welcome. After his flight on a Mercury-Redstone rocket, chimpanzee Ham is greeted by the commander of the recovery ship, USS Donner. On January 31, 1961, a Mercury-Redstone launch from Cape Canaveral carried the chimpanzee, Ham, over 400 miles down range in an arching trajectory that reached a peak of 158 miles above the Earth. The mission was successful and Ham performed his lever-pulling task well in response to the flashing light. NASA used chimpanzees and other primates to test the Mercury capsule before launching the first American astronaut Alan Shepard in May 1961. The successful flight and recovery confirmed the soundness of the Mercury-Redstone systems.
Size: 2996px × 4200px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -2, 2, 20th, 31, 1961, 31st, administration, aeronautics, america, american, animal, ape, astrochimp, century, chimp, chimpanzee, cold, commander, donner, exploration, flight, ham, handshake, helmet, historic, historical, history, hominid, hominidae, industrial, january, mercury, mercury-redstone, mission, monkey, nasa, national, photo, photograph, program, project, race, redstone, rocket, science, space, states, system, technology, test, united, usa, uss, war
