[Project Mercury]

A UNIQUE TRIBUTE TO THE UNSUNG PIONEERS OF THE SPACE RACE

In this whimsical painting, a chimpanzee is depicted sitting comfortably in the pilot’s seat of a NASA Mercury space capsule. In command and in control, the astrochimp grips a lever between its legs and looks forward at the control panel as it courageously navigates through empty space. The printer's markings, visible in the lower margin of the frame, indicate that the image should be reduced in size, suggesting that this image was produced with the intention of being published in a book or magazine, likely Collier's or LIFE.

Chimpanzees played a critical role in Project Mercury's successful delivery of humans to space. While animals such as dogs, mice, and other monkey species had been launched into space by the Americans as early as 1948, more than a decade before Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard became the first Soviet and American in space, they had all been mere passengers. Chimps, on the contrary, were considered optimal subjects to test the biological and motor effects of spaceflight due to their close genetic similarities to humans and their ability to provide a reasonable reproduction of human behavior. For Project Mercury, 40 chimps were inducted as the inaugural class of astronauts. They were taught to pull levers in response to sound and light and like their human “Mercury Seven” counterparts, they were exposed to simulated G-forces and microgravity to prepare them for spaceflight. The chimpanzee Ham, who is presumably the subject of this painting, was the first chimpanzee to fly in the Mercury program and the first chimpanzee in space. Enos was the second chimpanzee in the Mercury program to fly, extending Ham's legacy by becoming the first and only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth. The present painting both amuses and inspires, ultimately serving as testament to the invaluable contribution chimpanzees had on the future of human spaceflight.