Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
Following the public announcements of the use of the American-born
rhesus monkey in the recent Jupiter test, the Secretary of HEW raised questions
with the Defense Department and with NASA as to the intention of these agencies
with respect to the use of Indian-born rhesus monkeys in the future. A copy
of the response of the Department of Defense prepared by Admiral John Clark
is attached for your information [not included]. For NASA, I informed [Health,
Education, and Welfare] Secretary Flemming that we proposed to use relatively
few biological specimens and where we felt a rhesus monkey was indicated as the
proper animal, we would use American-bred animals. Please take this as your
instruction to abide by this statement on my part.
[Signed]
T.K.G
Cc: Dr. Silverstein
Dr. Randt
Attachment:
Thermofax copy of Memo dtd 6/11/59
From Adm. Clark, ARPA, to Secy.,
HEW [not included]
Document I-25
Document Title: NASA, “Information Guide for Animal Launches in Project
Mercury,” 23 July 1959.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
In all, there were four launches of Mercury spacecraft with primates aboard to test the
life support systems of the vehicle. The first of these was the Little Joe 2 flight of 4 December
1959 with Sam, an American-born rhesus monkey, aboard. Sam was recovered, several
hours later, with no ill effects from his journey. He was later returned to his home at the
School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, where he died
in November 1982. Miss Sam, another rhesus monkey and Sam’s mate, was launched on
21 January 1960, on the Little Joe 1B mission. She was also recovered and returned to the
School of Aviation Medicine. On 31 January 1961, Ham, whose name was an acronym
for Holloman AeroMed, became the first chimpanzee in space, aboard the Mercury Redstone
2 (MR-2) mission on a sub-orbital flight. Ham was brought from the French Camaroons,
West Africa, where he was born in July 1957, to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in
1959. Upon the completion the successful flight and a thorough medical examination, Ham
was placed on display at the Washington Zoo in 1963 where he lived until 25 September
1980, when he moved to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro until his death
on 17 January 1983. Enos became the first chimp to orbit the Earth on 29 November 1961,
aboard Mercury Atlas 5 (MA-5) launched on 29 November 1961, from Cape Canaveral,
Florida. This two-orbit, 88 minute, 26 second flight, proved the capability of the Mercury
spacecraft. Enos died at Holloman Air Force Base of a non-space related case of dysentery