The first space Chimp

My daughter's liked my Laika post on the Russian Space dog. I told them the US had sent up monkeys, rats and assorted animals. Enos the chimp was the first to orbit the earth in a Mecury capsule. Do you remember the Right Stuff. I believe it was John Glenn who complained it was a chimp that got to orbit first, not a human!

Enos became the first chimp to orbit the earth on November 29, 1961, aboard a Mercury Atlas rocket. Although the mission plan originally called for three orbits, due to a malfunctioning thruster and other technical difficulties, flight controllers were forced to terminate Enos' flight after two orbits. Enos landed in the recovery area and was picked up 75 minutes after splashdown. He was found to be in good overall condition and both he and the Mercury spacecraft performed well. His mission concluded the testing for a human orbital flight, achieved by John Glenn on February 20, 1962. Enos died at Holloman Air Force Base of a non-space related case of dysentery 11 months after his flight.

I could not find a picture of Enos, I did find one on Sam the Rheus Monkey here. Sam was sent up in a Little Joe-2 (LJ-2) spacecraft. The US NAVY recovered the little sucker after 3 minutes of weightlessness.


Another space chimp was Ham pictured here with his trainer (here).