For 17 years, the 25-year-old monkey lived almost alone for most of his existence as a display.
NASA said that while Ham’s other remains were buried outside the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico, his skeleton was sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
But Ham wasn’t the only animal to be tested; dogs, cats, and even jellyfish were forced to make the dangerous journey.
Animals in space for the first time
On June 11, 1948, a rhesus macaque named Albert I became the first animal to travel into space on a V-2 blossom.
Albert I perished from suffocation while flying more than 39 miles from White Sands, New Mexico.
Three further monkeys—Albert II, Albert III, and Albert IV—went into space in 1949, a year later. No one returned alive.
