Space Chimpanzee in His Flight Couch

Chimpanzee, "Ham" is secured in his flight couch with animal restraints. Writing on the photo or group of photos: '"Ham"- In his flight couch. Figure 6. Complete Animal Restraint.' Physical description: Black and white print (photograph) 24x19mm; 15x11mm; 13x10mm negative."Ham", whose name was an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medicine, became the first chimpanzee in space aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on January 31, 1961. Ham was born in French Camarrons, West Africa in July of 1956 or 57 and brought to the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to start his training in 1959. Ham's mission paved the way for the first human astronauts. Ham died in 1983 is memorialized by a burial stone at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico; while his skeleton is part of the National Museum of Health and Medicine's collection. Dr. Thomas Lee Wolfle, D.V.M. (TAMU '61) worked with Ham and other NASA Primate in the program in those early days