UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted November 3, 2011 A Chimpanzee called 'Ham'...who at 5,857MPH...has to be the fastest Chimp on record! Ham was named in honor of Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, New Mexico, where the chimpanzees lived and also in honor of Holloman commander Lt. Col. Hamilton Blackshear. In training for his suborbital flight to space, the four-year-old chimpanzee practiced with three other chimps pulling levers to receive rewards for correct choices. Eventually, Ham was blasted off inside Mercury capsule number 5 atop a Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1961. His mission was to prove that live animals aboard a spacecraft could carry out their jobs during launch, weightlessness and reentry. Unfortunately, Ham's rocket overshot and boosted the chimp in his capsule to a speed of 5,857 mph. That was 1,457 mph faster than planned, which resulted in Ham experiencing 1.7 more minutes of weightlessness than projected. He was weightless for a total of 6.6 minutes. The excess power also shot the capsule 122 miles off course. Even so, Ham was able to perform his tasks almost perfectly. The Mercury capsule landed far outside the Atlantic Ocean target zone at 12:12 p.m., 60 miles from the nearest recovery ship, the destroyer Ellison. Lying on its side in the water, the capsule was battered by waves. Tears in the landing bag capsized the craft. An open cabin pressure relief valve let sea water in. It was beginning to submerge when Navy rescue helicopter pilots found it. At 2:52 p.m. a helicopter managed to snag the craft and lift it and 800 pounds of sea water out of the ocean. After dangling all the way to a ship, the capsule was lowered to the deck. Nine minutes later Ham came out in good condition. He happily accepted an apple and half an orange. Ham survived in good condition to retire to the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C., on April 2, 1963. The success of his Mercury capsule flight led directly to the launch of Alan Shepard on America's first human suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted November 3, 2011 (edited) What a Guy! Edited November 3, 2011 by UK_Widowmaker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
column5 63 Posted November 3, 2011 I always feel bad for the animals that other countries shot into orbit without any intention of recovering. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted November 3, 2011 I always feel bad for the animals that other countries shot into orbit without any intention of recovering. Absolutely!..Poor Laika comes to mind Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shiloh 12 Posted November 3, 2011 I once shot a caterpillar off in my Big Bertha rocket in 4th grade rocket club and sadly he didn't survive the flight. It was my teacher's idea though so I suppose it's his fault. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted November 3, 2011 (edited) Well...I'm afraid you will all be disgusted with me....self confessed Animal lover that I am....but I lived in a four storey apartment as a kid..and I had a GI Joe (or action man as he's called here)...and it included a Space Capsule for him to sit in. It was the late 60's, and the NASA moon landings were big news....So me and my brother filled a Trash can full of water...with the intention of doing a simulated splashdown, by dropping the capsule out the window...and into the Trashcan full of water. Two test runs later, and all was going well... So we decided to try it with a Live Astronaut. Unfortunately, the only live specimen we had, was my Sister's pet Gerbil...Stanley. So, in true pioneer spirit...Stanley became the new British Space program volunteer. (well, perhaps Volunteer is the wrong phrase, under the circumstances) He was strapped in (ok, forced in through the hatch) and prepared to make History...he was duly dropped four storeys....onto the Sidewalk!....missing the trashcan by mere feet. We rushed downstairs...to find a very traumatised, but unhurt Gerbil still in the wreckage!...to this day, I don't know how the poor little thing survived!...but he did. And was duly returned to his cage...if not a National hero...certainly a hero to my Brother an I. I'm sorry little Stanley, for what we put you through...but it upset me to think what might have happened to him....and in some strange way..I think I learnt respect for Animals because of that Childish episode! (ps...My sister never knew about this...and if she reads it...I'm a dead man walking!...she loves animals even more than me!) Edited November 3, 2011 by UK_Widowmaker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
