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NewsNCR | Edited By: Ankit Gupta
Updated on: Jan 31, 2023 | 8:00 AM IST
On January 31, 1961, for the first time in the history of America, chimpanzees were sent into space. The name of the chimpanzee was Ham. It was the first animal to go into space. Know, how was his journey.
January 31, 1961. This is the date when chimpanzees, a species of monkeys, were sent into space for the first time in the history of America. The chimpanzee’s name was Ham. It was the first animal to go into space. The ham was brought from the forests of Cameroon. From here he was caught and taken to Florida. After keeping it safe in the Miami Rare Bird firm, preparations were started to send it to space.
In 1959, Haim was sent to the Air Force base for training. The scientists had to train Hamm for several months. This included not taking stress in the capsule, opening and closing the liver and eating banana flavored pills when hungry. Training for scientists has not been easy at all. For this mission, Ham was given a code name #65 (hashtag 65). After about 18 minutes of training, he was ready to go into space. Scientists chose chimpanzees for space travel, there was also a special reason for this. He wanted to know how humans cope with the effects in space. Now let’s understand why only chimpanzee was chosen.
Scientists used to say that in the species of monkeys, only chimpanzee is close to humans in physical structure. That’s why chimpanzees were sent for space missions. Was sent under Project Mercury (MR-2). The launch pad was set on the island of Florida. The ham was sent to space by placing it in a capsule. Reached space 16:30 minutes after take off.
According to the report, Haim’s capsule reached a height of 157 km at a speed of 5800 km. When returned to Earth, the capsule fell into the Atlantic Ocean at a distance of 130 km. A ship was sent to rescue Ham. After being removed from the capsule, it was placed in the National Zoo in Washington in 1963. Later he was sent to the zoo in North Carolina.
He died a year later on 18 January. This experiment done on ham was successful. Scientists understood many things from this experiment. Like how much preparation is needed to send humans into space. After this experiment, humans started being sent into space. When the chimpanzee returned to earth, it was named Ham.
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