about me

Ham the Chimp.

Ham was born July 1956^[1][2]:245 in Cameroon, captured by animal trappers and sent to Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida.^[2]:245 He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959.^[1]
There were originally 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at Holloman. After evaluation the number of candidates was reduced to 18, then to 6 including Ham.^[2]:245-246 Officially, Ham was known as #65 before his flight, and only renamed "Ham" upon his successful return to earth. This was reportedly because officials did not want the bad press that would come from the death of a "named" chimpanzee if the mission were a failure. Among his handlers, #65 had been known as Chop Chop Chang.[