blacksundae

I’m starting work on a script that involves the chimps that NASA shot into space in the early 1960’s (don’t ask) and I just started doing research. One Google search took me to this:

The first ‘chimponaut’, three-year-old Ham, rocketed into space on January 31, 1961. According to NASA’s archives, “Ham’s survival, despite a host of harrowing mischances…, raised the confidence of the astronauts and the capsule engineers alike.”

Three months later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. NASA’s next mission was getting a capsule into orbit, and on November 29, 1961, five-year-old Enos was launched into space. Due to a malfunction inside the capsule, Enos was given an electric shock for every correct maneuver he made, a reward-punishment system that contradicted over a year of training.

Rather than alter his behavior, Enos endured the shocks and performed the flight tasks he knew were right. The flight took Enos on a two-orbit ride and landed him alive. This qualified the system for manned flight, and the following year John Glenn orbited the earth three times.

Holy cow! That’s one tough chimp. But then…

America took its astronaut heroes to heart with an enthusiasm that surprised the nation. In March 1962 four million people in New York City showered confetti on John Glenn and fellow astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

The Air Force chimpanzees were not so lucky. After showing the “right stuff,” the chimpanzees were reassigned to “hazardous mission environments.” In one such “environment,” the development of the seat belt, the chimpanzees were subjected to perilous levels of force while in restraints in deceleration sleds. By the 1970s the Air Force stopped using the chimpanzees and began leasing them out for biomedical research purposes.

Makes you feel ashamed to be human, doesn’t it? Read on.