Chimpanzee Space Flight Couch

Creator

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information

Files

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

A Chimpanzee named “Ham” was secured in a flight couch just like this one, and placed in a Mercury space capsule attached to a Redstone rocket. “Ham”, an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medicine, was the first chimpanzee in space, completing a sub-orbital flight on January 31, 1961. Primates were used as a surrogate for humans, testing impacts from noise, acceleration, vibration, re-entry, and zero gravity before crewed flights were undertaken. This couch, and information on primates in space, is part of a display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Ham died in 1983 and his skeleton is part of the National Museum of Health and Medicine’s collection in Washington, D.C. For more about Ham, his life, and death, see: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/mercury-primate-capsule-and-ham-astrochimp see also: https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2013/dec/16/ham-chimpanzee-hero-or-victim

Streaming Media

Keywords

Cape Canaveral, Space history, Space race, US Space Force

Extent

1 3-D Model

Recommended Citation

Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information, "Chimpanzee Space Flight Couch" (2022). Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – 3D Historic Launch Complexes. 30.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cdhgi_cape_canaveral_3d/30