OTD In Space – January 31: Ham the Chimpanzee Takes Flight
On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee by the name of Ham blasted off on a Mercury-Redstone rocket and became the first hominid to go to space.
Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles during a 16 and a half-minute flight and was recovered unharmed, but a bit dehydrated. The two-year-old chimpanzee underwent rigorous training before the flight and learned to do timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds. Ham’s ability to accomplish tasks under the harsh conditions of spaceflight showed NASA that human astronauts could do the same.
Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles during a 16 and a half-minute flight and was recovered unharmed, but a bit dehydrated. The two-year-old chimpanzee underwent rigorous training before the flight and learned to do timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds. Ham’s ability to accomplish tasks under the harsh conditions of spaceflight showed NASA that human astronauts could do the same.
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TechTranscript
00:00 On this day in space.
00:04 On January 31st, 1961, a chimpanzee by the name of Ham
00:08 blasted off on a Mercury-Redstone rocket and became the first hominid to go to space.
00:12 Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles during
00:16 a 16 and a half minute flight and was recovered unharmed, but a bit dehydrated.
00:20 The two-year-old chimpanzee underwent rigorous training before the flight
00:24 and learned to do timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds.
00:28 Ham's ability to accomplish tasks under the harsh conditions of spaceflight
00:32 showed NASA that human astronauts could do the same.
00:36 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology