Ham, der Astro-Schimpanse, wird 1960-61 für die Reise ins All ausgebildet. Vor seinem erfolgreichen Weltraumflug im Jahr 1961 war Ham einfach als Nr. 65 bekannt, um im Falle eines Misserfolgs negative Schlagzeilen zu vermeiden

The saddest part of his story is what happened after. Everyone saw the famous photos of him „smiling“ when they opened the capsule hatch, but chimp experts later pointed out that it wasn’t a smile at all. It was a fear grimace. He was completely traumatized.

Then they stuck him in the National Zoo for 17 years completely alone in a cage because they didn’t know how to socialize him with other chimps. At least he got to spend his last few years at a nice sanctuary in North Carolina with a proper chimp troop

He’s buried outside the space museum in Alamogordo, NM, across the valley from White Sands. Great museum.