Ham The Chimp - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• In 2000, in the film Space Cowboys, the main characters Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and their team Daedalus of the U.S. Air Force are replaced by a chimpanzee named Mary-Ann for the new civilian organization (NASA) to take control of the new external atmosphere exploration program. The film mentions that the chimp became the first American to cross into outer space.
• A 2001 film titled Race to Space, was a fictionalized version of Ham's story about sending chimps to space. The chimpanzee in the movie was named Mac.
• In episode 12 of series 1 of The Ricky Gervais Show, Karl Pilkington tells his version of Ham's mission in his "Monkey News" segment. His version is entirely inaccurate.
• The 2006 song "Monkey 61" by Irish band Bell X1 was based on Ham the Chimp.
• In 2006, a documentary was made for Animal Planet called "Astrochimp #65" which tells the story of Ham as witnessed by Jeff. Jeff took care of Ham until his departure from the Air Force Base after the success of the mission.
• A 2008 animated film entitled Space Chimps was about sending chimps to space. The main character and hero of the movie was named Ham III, the grandson of Ham.
• In 2008, Bark Hide & Horn, a folk-rock band from Portland, Oregon, released a song titled, "Ham the Astrochimp," detailing the journey of Ham from his perspective.
• Curious George, the popular character from the children's books of the same name, undertakes a similar mission in the story Curious George Gets a Medal, published four years before Ham's flight.
• In the 1983 film adaption of The Right Stuff, the launch and splashdown of Ham's space flight is dramatized. The Mercury astronauts are asked by the traveling press corps which one thinks they will be first into space. After a montage showing the first successful launch and ocean recovery of a mission rocket, it is revealed that Ham the Chimp is the first "American" in space.