Ham: The First Great Ape in Space Pin

Ham the Space Monkey (as he’s referred to colloquially while in reality a chimpanzee) endured the terror of space flight, spinning in fear in order to open the stars to human beings. While he survived, due to the trauma of the experience he refused to ever enter his space pod again, even just for photographs. Han survived for 19 years after his ordeal. Despite the cruelty of humans doing this to another thinking being, we honor Hams ordeal and the doors he opened up through physically enduring the launch and descent process and especially in taking on the weight of bearing witness to the cold and endless cosmos in the complexity of fear and wonder even humans struggle to comprehend.