Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2), launched on January 31, 1961 from Cape Canaveral, was a suborbital space flight that carried the first chimpanzee, Ham, into outer space. The space flight lasted about 17 minutes. Ham's name is an acronym for the lab that prepared him for his historic mission — the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center. Ham was 3 years 8 months old at launch, and died on January 19, 1983, at the age 26. He was one of many animals in space.
