Cosmic Critters: The Chimp Who Survived Space—and Changed Everything

In this out-of-this-world episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole tell the incredible—and deeply emotional—story of Ham the Chimp, the first hominid to survive spaceflight.

🧠 How was Ham trained to perform tasks during a rocket launch?
 🚀 What made his 1961 mission so important to Project Mercury?
 💔 And what did it cost to send an intelligent animal into space?

Ham wasn’t just a passenger—he was a pioneer who proved humans could survive and function in zero gravity. But his journey, from capture in the wild to high-speed spaceflight and life in a cage, raises profound questions about ethics, science, and the legacy of animal astronauts.

Whether you're a space exploration buff, an animal lover, or just someone who appreciates the messy intersection of science and humanity, this final episode of Cosmic Critters is one you won’t forget.

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: I'm Katy, and today is the last episode of Cosmic Critters for this season. Then next week we have one more episode, full length episode, and then we're going to quote unquote take a season break. It's not really a break. We're gonna be doing mini episodes. Do we just wanna go ahead and announce what those mini episodes episodes are gonna be?

Laura: Or just be like, we'll tell

Katy: wait till next week. Yeah, let's just wait till next week. Ah, you have to wait till next week to find out. I think it's gonna be cool. So.

Laura: And I actually do have nature news thanks to Paul, one of our most avid recent listeners. Paul sent me some nature news, thankfully, so I didn't have to look anything up. Yeah, so thankfully, we have discovered a new species of dinosaur.

Katy: Oh yeah,

Laura: Yes. So we, scientists, this is from NBC News, but it's, it's all over the place.

 From about two weeks ago, scientists discover [00:01:00] weird Mongolian dinosaur, and it's part of that group of dinosaur, it's called the OSAs. They look terrifying. They've got two, they've got usually three giant claws. They're like a big bird, long neck. They look like something that would rip you apart, but really they're just plant eaters.

So normally they have. Three giant claws. This one only has two giant claws. The veteran makes it, they're like, that's how we know it's different. , its name is CUS two. And then, boy, this is definitely probably where it was frowned, but so sog, but Atari maybe. Anyway, two foot long claws on each hand that is excessive.

Katy: Is it like machetes? Do they think it was just like my shit? 

Laura: , they are, it's supposed to be just for grabbing and pull, like basically sloth claws. Imagine so, and the same purpose practically not hanging upside down, but grabbing a branch and bringing it to your mouth.

Katy: Okay. Okay. So not like bush whacking.

Laura: I guess not, although, they [00:02:00] are, the actual bone digit looks crazy sharp, but who knows what was.

Keratin sheath. But yeah, I mean they were like, these are already a weird group of dinosaurs. And they're like, and now we have an even weirder one. 'cause this one just has a minus a digit. But just like any animal group evolution plays around with body styles and if it's not detrimental. So

Katy: Yeah. Right.

Laura: yeah, new species of dinosaur.

Katy: That's awesome. Yeah, and I saw like nowadays, like now they're starting to draw like more and more accurate. Like filling in the skeleton and everything. And they've been doing that 'cause they were going back and I was like, okay, if we drew present day animals,

Laura: yeah,

Katy: If you look like present day animals, how we draw dinosaurs, based off a, yeah.

 It's ridiculous. If you look up a hippo or a squirrel, it's just nuts. So,

Laura: fuel.

Katy: no. Right, right. So it's definitely getting better. There's several . What do you call I don't know, science artists that I follow on Blue Sky? Yeah. Paleos are cra but it's so cool.

And some of the stuff [00:03:00] that they're doing is really, really neat. So. All righty. Well, Laura's gonna talk about this last cosmic

Laura: say, how do I connect the, evolution? I don't know. I feel like we're going out on such a downer

Katy: Oh, no.

Laura: well, it's

Katy: For science.

Laura: science. For science and what we have done in the name of science. This one really hurts my heart, but it's Ham the chimp,

Katy: Oh yeah. This is a hard

Laura: So like we have gone from, like I did, we've done frogs and cats and Alberts one through three and all these other ones and all of them are like ethically questionable.

 Ham. The chimp though, just takes it from me. I guess we needed to do it, but geez, Louise.

Katy: Yeah. Yeah. Especially since the intelligent level is just a whole other, yeah.

Laura: so I, yeah. At, so trigger warning for anyone out there who doesn't wanna hear like any kind of animal abuse that this is definitely that. , so Ham,

Katy: this is before we had laws and everything against that to protect animals.

Laura: [00:04:00] He Ham, who's named after it's, his name is actually an acronym for the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center. AKA number 65 was a chimpanzee.

He was born in nineteen seventy, nineteen fifty seven in the French Cameroons trapped sent to live in Florida and then bought by the Air Force,

Katy: What a weird

Laura: And he. Was very young when he was bought. He was still considered a baby when he was bought by the Air Force. So before launching a human, scientists wanted to make sure, so the last goal, 'cause this is happening, fairly recently compared to some of the other ones we talked to about they, first people wanted to see could something survive up there.

And then once we found something survived up there, we, more and more and

Katy: Yeah. It's progressively getting more.

Laura: yes. Which is why they're getting closer and closer to people. So they wanted to make sure that motor tasks were possible in space, not just being a passenger, but you could actually do things in space.

'cause they didn't [00:05:00] know they were like

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: in like anti-gravity, can you mill? Can you move? And since chimps are as close to us as they could get. Chimpanzees. It was, so, 40 chimps were trained for Project Mercury. They were also known as the Astro Chimps, which is pretty cool name. And they were trained in all the usual stuff that we've talked about with some of our other animals, G-Force, microgravity.

 And they were trained to pull levers during these, whatever, whatever they were being, the microgravity, all of that. They had to pull levers during of the 46 were finalists, so six, made it through Space Camp.

Katy: Yeah. Which at least let's put a positive spin on it. Space Camp for chimps.

Laura: finalists then went to Cape Canaveral in Florida where they did more training and tests in an imitation Mercury capsule. So like really close to okay, can they fit in this space? Are they gonna be okay? All of this stuff. Finally, our boy ham and a female were chosen [00:06:00] the day before launch as the final two.

The female being the backup. Why him? Because he was acting particularly feisty and in good humor. So they figured they wanted somebody. They wanted somebody with a good personality to go up there.

Katy: he's just trying to be like, just live his chimp life. He is just I'm happy today. They're like, you're going bud.

Laura: yeah, yeah. You had a good

Katy: He had no

Laura: Not anymore. So the Mercury capsule was the Mercury spacecraft number five. And, the chimpanzee would be strapped in a harness inside a pressurized capsule inside the craft itself. So you've got your mercury, and then inside is this tiny little capsule that was pressurized.

It is 40 inches by 20 inches by 16 inches, essentially a coffin. Okay? And he was only 37 pounds, so he was. A juvenile, essentially a coffin, that they called a [00:07:00] couch because I'm sure it made them feel better.

Katy: yeah. Right. Like, guys, come on now.

Laura: as a reminder, I just couldn't keep thinking out of this, out of my head that he's a toddler chimpanzee who would've still been nursing in the wild. That's how little he is. He is baby or a toddler. Okay, so toddler strapped into this thing. Launched in his space on January 31st, 1961. He was supposed to go 115 miles high and 4,400 miles per hour. Not to make a pun, but he went ham and shot 157 miles high, was significantly higher and 5,857 miles per hour. , you know, just another, almost a thousand miles, another 800 miles per hour, more. Which made him land 132 miles off course. So they're shooting him up into space and expecting him to [00:08:00] land in the ocean, but he lands in the ocean, a hundred through 32 miles from where they expect to pick him up.

 So in that time he experienced 6.6 minutes of weightlessness, and his total flight time was only 16.5 minutes because he was just going so freaking fast. So he was only up there for a little bit, but it was really fast.

Katy: It has to be. So like we've talked about this with all the other animals, how confusing this has to be, but I don't think anybody else now did Ham have a window?

Laura: don't think so.

Katy: okay. Because again, you have to realize, okay, out of all the other animals we've talked about, we've all oh hey, they don't have a window.

Like the cats, the cats are probably just like in a box again and they're like, oh, this is another stupid test. Like they're they, for all they know, they're still on earth ham though, for all he knows he's still on earth, but there's a whole other level of intelligence compared to the other animals that we've talked

Laura: Well, and he's certainly going faster and experiencing more G-Force than he ever experienced

Katy: And he's, and he is mentally yes, he's intelligent, but he is also

Laura: a toddler,

Katy: [00:09:00] toddler. Yes.

Laura: So, disaster struck when the spacecraft lost pressure in space, but thankfully was averted due to the fact that he had that specialized. Specialized pressure capsule. So the main capsule failed his tank did not, but he did land in the ocean and because of that external one being depressurized, it started filling with water.

Thank the Lord. They got to him in time, because he was 132 miles off course. So the internal capsule was glass for sure. So he could certainly see the water filling up. I've seen the, like you can look up him in this little couch. so it says he was reported, he was reportedly not completely traumatized as he immediately wanted to eat.

So an admiral got him out of the water and there's like pictures of him and they hand him an apple and he is like ready to eat it immediately and held hands with the commander. So he was like, okay, like I guess I'll have a snack. [00:10:00] But he totally freaking lost it for the paparazzi because they wanted him to have, they wanted him back in the capsule for pictures and it

Katy: F that,

Laura: men to calm him down, toddler sized little chimpanzee

Katy: but they're strong.

Laura: men to calm him down for pictures next to the capsule.

And they could not make him get back in it. 'cause he was losing his mind because yes, he was traumatized, yet he is not going back in there.

Katy: Jeez.

Laura: So the results, was it worth it? Other than tired and a little dehydrated, he was fine. Ev even after some pretty bad circumstances, he was physically fine. And they did find that he could perform those motor skills.

So remember his only job up there was to pull a lever, can you imagine us? Okay, me all. Laura, my three and a half year old, she's pretty smart. She could probably do this, but can you imagine just the general, like we're gonna send a three-year-old into space.

Alright guys, don't freak out. [00:11:00] No crying. Pull this lever pull. No matter what happens, you pull this lever.

Katy: pull the lever.

Laura: actual difference of being like, we would never do that. We would never send a toddler into space.

Katy: Yeah. And what year? You said He was born in

Laura: was in 57. He was 61, so he was only four

Katy: Okay. Hold on. Let me look up

Laura: and 37 pounds. So yeah, they said he was still nursing, he was still, he would've been nursing if he was a wild chimpanzee.

Katy: So well, 'cause what I was looking at is when did Jane Goodall start her research on chimpanzees and it was like 1960, so it was around the same time. So I guess. Because you figure she was the, premier primatologist as far as chimpanzees went in their understanding. So I don't wanna say, in their defense we didn't realize just how smart they were.

But at the same time, it was like her work was just start like really making headlines, around the same time as this. So I don't think, at least behavior wise, I don't know. If we really had a [00:12:00] grasp, like probably oh yeah, they're smart, but not knowing just how

Laura: physically like us and pretty smart.

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: So he did, he, he did pull the lever even under all that stress, which showed that humans could move in, in space. And it gave scientists and astronauts the confidence that they needed to put a man inside. This was the last step.

This, this was it.

Katy: You know what the frogs probably could approve and that, things could move if they didn't cut

Laura: You fit in, sever all their freaking nerves. Oh my gosh. Well,

Katy: Pierre and Tenino.

Laura: okay, so, kind of a happy ending to the story kind of. So Ham went to live at the DC Zoo in 1963, so two years later he was still living with the military until then. But when he was six, he went to go live at the DC Zoo, and he lived there until 1980 when he was moved to the North Carolina Zoological Park. So he lived, he died in 1983 at around age 26, which seems old to people, but is [00:13:00] not very old for a chimpanzee

Katy: yeah, not for a

Laura: that's like half of a chimpanzee's normal life

Katy: Yeah.

Trauma probably

Laura: yeah,

Katy: you know?

Laura: and probably the most tragic part is for the first 17 years. So that's until he moved to, so while he was the DC Zoo, and again, this is nothing against zoos.

You all know us like

Katy: Yeah. We're, yep. For

Laura: pro Zoo, but we just didn't know zoos, just didn't know back in the day what. What was and was not an good animal. Husbandry at some, about some things. He lived completely alone

Katy: Oh

Laura: time. Well, probably because too,

Katy: He had no idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Laura: literally sent to space.

He had nothing in common with chimpanzees

Katy: We've seen that, and there have been documented cases about how bad that is. Whenever you have chimps that are human raised

Laura: Right. We knew one that couldn't be in with males. He could only be in with the females.

Katy: Yeah. Yeah. [00:14:00] And so it, it

Laura: guy lived alone until then, when he went to North Carolina, I guess they were able to integrate him at least with some others. So he died with others. His last three years of his life, he got to spend with other chimpanzees.

 And part of him is buried there. But his other remains, so I think his skeleton might be there, but his other remains, they wanted to look inside and make, see, now that he's dead, like did the space affect him that his other remains are buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in, New Mexico.

So you, he's also got like , a memorial place there. So that's like the tragic but very important story of ham. He wa he was. He was the last step for us to be able to know it was safe to send humans into space. And this that was, 1961. So we were really close to being like, alright, let's do this.

Let's go to Space.

Katy: Yeah. Let's just send this one last thing up.

Laura: toddler.

Katy: one last thing up in check. Yeah.

Laura: ham.

Katy: Right. [00:15:00] I still, anytime I think about him, I think, and I referenced this in an earlier episode. I think it was the cat one you did, Disney's, , rocket Man,

Laura: Oh, yes. Yeah, totally.

Katy: Yeah, there's a chimp in there too where he's like kind of competing against the chimp and, but their intelligence is like the same level and everything.

Such a good movie. It's such a dumb good movie, guys. Have, you guys haven't, yeah, I hope you guys haven't seen it.

Laura: I guess though that this is we said that this series was all about how animals laid. The founda animals laid the foundation for us to be able to, to be in space. So like this last one, they all have done that. Yeah.

Katy: Yeah, for everything. Studying different, anything from like the overall effects to like particular systems within animals and then later on, , things like , the spiders, just as you see the effects of just generalized orientation of the world around you and everything.

 Yeah. Yeah, a lot of, yeah, it, it is amazing and it, again, I can't get over the [00:16:00] window thing, like to

Laura: I don't know what would be better or worse. We talked about that before too, right? Would it be better or worse to see what's going on? I think he'd be freaking out more.

Katy: Yeah. I think they would be freaking out more. 'cause the absence of not knowing, like knowing or

Laura: Well, because also everything would be on fire for like half of the time too, probably. I.

Katy: Right. Yeah. Man. All right guys. That's the last of the cosmic critters. We have another regular full episode next week and then we will go into a season break where we're just gonna do a string of the mini episodes and then you'll have to tune in next week then to hear what those mini episodes are gonna be for the season break.

And then we will start and kick up season 12. That's, again, we say this every time, but it's amazing. We have some really cool and exciting things coming up in the season break that we're gonna tease for season 12 at least that I'm really

Laura: Yes, I'm excited too. And if anybody's curious, I know sometimes our people are like, man, I really wish I knew more what Katy and Laura looked like. You can see us on [00:17:00] YouTube.

Katy: Yeah, go watch our full length videos. I'd do put a bunch of shorts, episode shorts up there, which Laura and I keep saying that are so, so funny out of context, so, yeah,

Until next week, guys, go check us out, like you said on Patreon and YouTube, and then we will talk to you next

Laura: Bye everybody.