The Astrochimps J
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Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard were the first men in space, but Ham got there ahead of them. The Astrochimps By John T. Correll ust before noon on Jan. 31, 1961, always as inactive passengers. Ham’s the captain and ate an apple and half an the Redstone rocket carrying flight was more than that. He had things orange. Ham had demonstrated he could the Mercury space capsule rose to do and levers to push—more than 50 function in space. It was up to humans Jfrom Cape Canaveral, Fla. A few actions to perform during his suborbital to prove they could do as well. minutes later, the capsule broke trip. During his 16.5-minute flight, Ham On April 12 (71 days after Ham’s free and climbed toward its apogee of experienced 6.6 minutes of weightless- flight), Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 157 miles. ness and pressures equal to 14.7 times the first man in space, made a full orbit Inside, cool as a cucumber and per- the force of gravity, but his response of Earth in Vostok 1. On May 5 (94 days forming his duties perfectly, was a times were as good as they were on Earth. after Ham), Alan Shepard became the 37-pound chimpanzee known previously Through no fault of Ham’s, the capsule first American astronaut in space. His as Chop Chop Chang or simply Number overshot its planned trajectory. It splashed suborbital flight in Freedom 7 used the 65. On this mission, he would earn his new down in the Atlantic Ocean 422 miles Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule name, Ham, derived from an acronym of from Cape Canaveral. The capsule was his home unit, the Holloman Aeromedical damaged in the landing and began to sink, Chimpanzee No. 65, subsequently Laboratory in New Mexico. but a Navy helicopter arrived soon and known as Ham, settles into his form- fitting “couch” before being launched Animals, notably monkeys and dogs, rescued Ham. Aboard the recovery ship on his suborbital flight. At left is his had been shot into space before, but USS Donner, Ham shook hands with handler, MSgt. Edward Dittmer. 134 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 aircraft and spacecraft. Animal rights activists today cite the risks and the NASA photos high mortality rate for early test ani- mals. However, the knowledge was so critical that humans took extraordinary risks, too. Col. John P. Stapp, head of the aeromedical laboratory at Holloman in the late 1950s, personally made 29 rocket sled runs, including one on Dec. 10, 1954, during which he accelerated to 632 mph and stopped in 1.4 seconds, subjecting himself to more than 42 times the force of gravity. Project Mercury, the US human space- flight program, conducted tests in two phases, beginning with small primates and progressing to experiments with Below: The capsule containing Ham on liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Mon- keys had flown into space before, but never higher-order primates. Left: Ham “shakes hands” with the captain of the recovery ship USS Donner. validated by Ham. Fifty years later Ham stresses of weightlessness and high G is remembered—with the possible excep- forces, and whether astronauts could tion of Cheeta in the Tarzan movies—as function—or even survive—in the en- the most famous chimpanzee of all time. vironment of space. “Before a man is lifted into space, we Animals in Space must learn whether an animal in space In the postwar period, the United States can perform tasks that it has learned on and Soviet Union conducted numerous the ground,” an Air Force spokesman experiments with animals carried aboard said. “If the animal’s sensory or motor rockets. Subjects included monkeys, abilities are impaired so it cannot per- mice, dogs, and in at least one instance, form these tasks, we must assume that a fruit flies. The first primate in space man suffering the same impairment will was Albert, a rhesus monkey who rode be ineffective as a monitor of dials or a a US-launched V-2 rocket to an altitude reporter of information.” of 39 miles in June 1948. Holloman Air Force Base, near As the prospect of human spaceflight Alamogordo, N.M., was one of the drew near, the need for testing increased. main sites for research about problems Little was known about the effects and pilots could encounter in high-altitude AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 135 left lever in response to the blue light. When they did it right, a banana-flavored NASA photos pellet was dispensed as a reward. When they did it wrong, they got a mild elec- tric shock to the bottoms of their feet. During the actual spaceflight, how well they worked the levers would test the capability to perform and operate in space under conditions of weightless- ness and high G forces. The chimpanzees were more skillful than humans in working with the lights and levers in the capsule mockup. Ac- cording to Life, “One female chimp learned to work the levers with her feet and kept her hands free to grab pellets.” Ham, Minnie, and Enos In January 1961, six chimps (four Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, poses with a model of the Jupiter missile that car- female, two male) and their handlers ried her to an altitude of 300 miles. Some visitors leave bananas instead of flowers moved from Holloman to Cape Ca- at her grave in Huntsville, Ala. naveral and into a compound behind “Hangar S.” They worked out on their chimpanzees, whose metabolic and physi- There were 65 chimpanzees at Hol- Mercury capsule trainers and awaited cal similarities to humans were greater. loman, and the 6571st Aeromedical the first mission, which was scheduled Public interest was considerable, and Research Laboratory was assigned to for Jan. 31. some of the animals became celebrities. train them, prepare them for flight, It was not until the night before that In May 1959, a rhesus monkey named and handle them after recovery. MSgt. Project Mercury officials chose Chop Able and a tiny squirrel monkey named Edward C. Dittmer was the longtime Chop Chang (Ham)—who was “excep- Baker rode in the nose cone of a Jupi- noncommissioned officer in charge of tionally frisky and in good humor”—to ter missile to an altitude of 300 miles. training for the chimpanzees who were fly the mission and picked a female chim- Baker, aka Miss Baker, weighed only candidates for space travel. He was also panzee named Minnie as his backup. 11 ounces. Her space capsule was the the handler for the two chimps who Ham was born in Cameroon in West size of a large thermos bottle. eventually flew in space, Ham and Enos. Africa in July 1957 and was brought to The two monkeys appeared at a The space chimps began their training Holloman in 1959. He was affectionate press conference, munching peanuts in the spring of 1959, at the same time and cuddly. “He’d put his arm around and crackers, and were featured on the as Mercury astronauts. “Eventually one me and he’d play, you know,” Dittmer cover of Life magazine. Able died a few of the beasts would be chosen for what said. “He was a well-tempered chimp.” days later during a medical procedure amounted to a dress rehearsal of the first Ham’s mission down the Atlantic to remove an electrode, but Baker lived manned flight,” Tom Wolfe said in his Test Range was designated Mercury- another 25 years, mostly at the US Space chronicle of the early astronauts, The Redstone 2. Ham returned to the Cape and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. Right Stuff. as a candidate for the second chimp Baker received 100 to 150 letters a day The chimps got plenty of cuddling and from schoolchildren who read about attention from human attendants. “They her. More than 300 people attended her are taught to wear carefully fitted space funeral in 1984. Her gravestone at the suits and to tolerate being strapped for entrance to the Rocket Center reads: long periods on softly padded contour “Miss Baker, squirrel monkey, first US couches,” Time magazine reported. animal to fly in space and return alive. “They are taken up in stunting aircraft May 28, 1959.” Sometimes visitors leave to get accustomed to sudden noise, vi- bananas instead of flowers. bration and G forces, and to learn what Another rhesus monkey, Sam (named weightlessness feels like.” for USAF’s School of Aerospace Medi- They were trained by operant con- cine), made national headlines in Decem- ditioning. The control panels of their ber 1959 when he survived the deliberate trainers had two levers and two lights. abort and premature separation of a The task was to pull the right-hand lever Mercury capsule from the rocket in a when the white light came on and the test of the launch escape system. Right: Enos, the second chimp in Banana Pellets space, was less friendly than Ham (note The “Chimp in Space” project began at wrist tethers). He was an exceptional spacefarer, though, and continued to Holloman in 1958 to test the life support pull levers correctly despite a malfunc- systems of Mercury spacecraft as well tion in his capsule’s control system as the effects of spaceflight. that delivered mild shocks to his feet. 136 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 mission into space, Mercury-Atlas 5, disposition of Minnie’s and Enos’ on Nov. 29, 1961, but his spacefaring remains is unknown. days were over. Retirement was less auspicious for the The chimp-onaut for the second mis- rest of the Project Mercury chimpanzees.