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    Ham

    Ham, also known as Ham the Astrochimp, was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space in the American space program. His name is an acronym for the lab that prepared him for his historic mission, the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located in New Mexico. On Jan. 31, 1961, Ham was launched in a Project Mercury mission labeled MR-2 and flew in a 16-minute-long suborbital flight. After his successful mission, Ham lived for 17 years at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.