and were the first men in , but 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 carrying flight was more than that. He had things orange. Ham had demonstrated he could the Mercury rose to do and levers to push—more than 50 function in space. It was up to Jfrom , 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 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 known previously Through no fault of Ham’s, the capsule first American 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 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 . but a Navy helicopter arrived soon and known as Ham, settles into his form- fitting “couch” before being launched , notably monkeys and , 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 with handler, MSgt. Edward Dittmer.

134 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 AIR FORCE Magazine Magazine FORCE AIR the most famous chimpanzee of all time. tion of in the movies—as is remembered—with the possible excep validated by Ham. Fifty later Ham Little was known about the effects and and effects the about known was Little drew near, the need for testing increased. 1948. June in miles 39 of a V-2US-launched to an altitude rocket space rode in who rhesus a was Albert, first The flies. fruit monkeys, and in one instance, at dogs, least mice, included Subjects . experiments with animals carried aboard numerous conducted Union Soviet and As the prospect of As of the prospect In the postwar period, the United States / September 2011 September / - pilots could encounter in high-altitude in high-altitude encounter could pilots the of problems about one for research sites main was N.M., Alamogordo, information.” of reporter a or dials of monitor a as ineffective be man suffering the same will impairment form these tasks, we must assume that a per cannot it so impaired are abilities motor or sensory ’s the “If said. spokesman Force Air an ground,” the on learned has it that tasks perform can space in animal an whether learn must space. of vironment en the survive—in even could function—or whether and forces, G high and of stresses , near near Base, Force Air Holloman “Before a man is lifted into space, we - -

NASA photos recovery ship USS USS ship recovery the of captain the hands” with “shakes Ham Left: . higher-order never but before, space into flown had keys Mon Fla. Canaveral, Cape from liftoff on Ham containing Below: capsule The and progressing to experiments with with experiments to progressing and primates small with beginning phases, two in tests conducted program, flight subjecting himself to more than 42 42 gravity. of force than the times more to himself subjecting to in 632 1.4 mph seconds, and stopped accelerated he which during 1954, 10, one on Dec. including runs, sled rocket 29 made personally 1950s, late the in the at laboratory aeromedical Holloman of head P. Stapp, John Col. too. risks, took extraordinary that humans critical so was knowledge the ani However, mals. test early for the rate and mortality risks high the cite today activists rights Animal . and aircraft Project , the US human space Donner. - 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 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 In , six chimps (four Miss Baker, a 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 and a tiny 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 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 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,” 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- 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- 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. sion was Enos, aka Number 85, who was By the , they were no longer needed regarded as the brightest and quickest for the space program and many of them member of the chimp colony. Like Ham, became subjects for medical research. In he was born in Cameroon and came to 1998, the Air Force divested itself of the Holloman in April 1960. chimpanzee colony. Of the 141 chimps But unlike Ham, he was not friendly then at Holloman, 30 went to the Primarily or cuddly. He was quick to bite. “Enos Primates sanctuary in San Antonio and was a good chimp,” said Dittmer. “He was the others were taken over by a private smart but he didn’t take to people, very biomedical testing organization that as- little. They said he was a mean chimp, sumed control of the facility at the base. but he wasn’t really mean. He just didn’t In 1999, another 21 of the chimps moved take to cuddling.” from Holloman to the Save the Chimps Enos was a little older and a little sanctuary in . larger than Ham was at the time of the The National Institutes of Health took first flight, and since his mission was over ownership of the Holloman chimps more complex, his training was more in 2000 and established the Alamogordo intensive. He had undergone 1,263 hours Primate Facility, located on the base, in of training, 343 of them in the Mercury 2001. Currently, 186 chimps are there. capsule simulator. At 10:07 a.m. on Nov. They have not been research subjects 29, the Atlas missile booster lifted Enos since 1995. NIH planned to allow medi- and the Mercury capsule from the Cape cal research to resume, but has backed for what was intended to be three orbits down—at least for now—under pressure of the Earth. Miss Baker, all 11 ounces of her, in her from activists, including Whatever Enos lacked in warmth, he bio-pack being readied for her Jupiter the world’s leading authority on chim- more than made up for in operational mission. The capsule was the size of a panzees, . ability. He was the epitome of the “Right thermos. Stuff.” Shortly into the flight, the lever for Space Pioneers Not Forgotten the motor skills testing malfunctioned. Ham returned to Holloman where he In April 2009, , one No matter how Enos performed his tasks, was kept under careful observation for of the original Mercury astronauts, and he got a shock to the bottoms of his feet. any developing indications of ill effects Crippen, commander of the first That did not hamper him. He continued from spaceflight. In 1963, he moved to mission, toured the Save the to pull his levers correctly. the National Zoo for a long stay as the Chimps sanctuary near Fort Pierce, Fla. The mission was terminated after two resident celebrity. Visitors usually found The 286 chimpanzees residing there in- orbits, not because of anything Enos did him genial and in good temper. When clude some descendants of the Holloman wrong but as the result of an attitude groups of schoolchildren came to see chimp-onauts, among them Li’l Mini, control system malfunction. The capsule him, Ham would step to the front of his youngest offspring of Minnie, who was splashed down off Puerto following cage and listen with attention to what Ham’s understudy for the first mission. a flight of three hours and 21 minutes. the teacher escorts had to say. He grew At the 150-acre park, the chimps ca- Enos blazed the way for ’s taller and gained weight, none of it fat, vorted on ropes and swings and lounged Friendship 7 orbital flight Feb. 20, 1962. during his time in Washington. about eating popsicles. As Carpenter and When Glenn later met the President’s In September 1980, he moved to Crippen drove through in golf carts, the four--old daughter, Caroline Ken- the North Carolina Zoological Park in chimps jumped and screamed and amused nedy, in Washington, her first question Asheboro, where he socialized with other themselves by spitting water on anyone was, “Where’s the monkey?” chimps and found a girlfriend. Ham died who got too close. Data recorded from the missions Jan. 19, 1983, at age 26. His skeleton “There were a lot of unknowns back found that pulse and respiration rates was preserved for ongoing examina- in the ’50s about how the human body and blood pressures for Ham and Enos tion by the Armed Forces Institute of would react to space and some real bad were unexceptional during their flights Pathology, but his other remains were concerns that you might die,” Crippen and that performance of their tasks “was laid to rest in front of the flagpole at the said. “And these guys opened that up unaffected by the weightless state.” International Space Hall of Fame and the to at least give people confidence that it Not that either Ham or Enos liked New Mexico Museum of Space History was OK to put Al Shepard and the guys spaceflight. After Ham’s mission, the in Alamogordo. up for the first time.” press wanted more photos of him in his Minnie died in 1998 at age 41, “I have great respect for space travel- contour couch, but he resisted being having given birth to nine offspring. ers more senior than I, and I have great strapped back into it and no amount of Enos died Nov. 4, 1962, of dysentery, respect for the species that did it first,” urging could persuade him otherwise. not related to the space program. The Carpenter said. n When the capsule was opened on the second mission, Enos ran out and jumped John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now into Dittmer’s arms, making an exception a contributing editor. His most recent article, “Near Failure at Nagasaki,” appeared to his no-cuddling rule. in the July issue. AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 137