On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham became the first great ape to travel to space. His mission was crucial in proving that living beings could survive and function in microgravity.

Smile: 'Ham,' the astro-chimp, reaches for an apple offered to him by a crewman of the USS Donner. This was the first food for the chimpanzee following a 420-mile ride in a Mercury capsule ...

Before any human dared orbit the stars, a young chimpanzee named Ham took the leap. His journey from the jungles of Cameroon to a NASA launchpad involved confusion, bananas, and a brush with ...

TODAY marks the anniversary of the first chimpanzee in space. On January 31, 1961, Ham the heroic chimpanzee was launched on a rocket and became the first ape to reach space. It wasn’t until … ...

It’s now widely thought that when a chimpanzee shows its top teeth during a smile, as Ham did, it’s not a smile — it’s a “fear grimace.” From the deck of the U.S.S. Donner in 1961, Ham ...

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 ...

RealClearScience - Ham & Enos: Space ChimpsBefore Alan Shepard and John Glenn boldly traveled into space, they were preceded by Ham and Enos. Mere months before Shepard's flight aboard Freedom 7, Ham ...

1961: Space chimp U.S. space chimpanzee Ham waits in his couch as Navy crew on the USS Donner open the enclosed capsule that carried the animal on a 420-mile ride through space, Feb. 1, 1961.

Not a lot of people know that. The chimp in question was called Ham -- not because he was partial to a certain sandwich, but rather an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center in New Mexico.

On Jan. 31, 1961, HAM the chimpanzee made history as the first of his kind to travel in a spaceship. His trip paved the way for human astronauts.

And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: January 31st, 1961, 55 years ago today ... the day a chimpanzee would boldly go where no man had gone before. For that was the day NASA loaded Ham ...

Why hoist one: Happy Fourth of July. Label: Next to the name is a drawing of a great space pioneer, Ham the chimp, who was launched into space in 1961. He helped show the way for American missions.