Ham the Astrochimp
Died 1983 - Alamogordo, New
Mexico
Ham was the world's first AstroChimp, and the first
free creature in outer space. He blasted off from Cape Canaveral on January
31, 1961, and traveled 155 miles in 16.5 minutes before splashing down safely
in the Atlantic. The first American human to orbit the earth, John Glenn,
was rewarded with a seat in the US Senate. Ham's reward was an apple.
After his space mission, Ham lived in the National Zoo in Washington, DC,
for 17 years. Fretting animal activists worried that he languished there, a lonely
superstar with a single tire hanging from his ceiling. So in 1981 Ham was moved
to a zoo in North Carolina. There he socialized with other chimps, and found a
special lady chimp to love. He died, peacefully, of old age on January 19, 1983,
at age 27.
Ham's body was shipped west, and is buried in the front lawn of the International
Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, NM, under the first slab of natural-tone
concrete poured in Otero County.
Grave of Ham the Astrochimp:Address: Hwy 2001, Alamogordo, NM [ Show Map] Directions: Hwys 54/70 north through town. Just past the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped, turn right on Indian Wells Rd. Drive to the end, then left on Scenic Drive, then a quick right onto Hwy 2001 up the hill to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. The International Space Hall of Fame is at the upper parking lot. Hours: Daylight Hours. (Call to verify) Phone: 505-437-2840
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