Ham the Astrochimp lived at the National Zoo

Ham, the first hominid launched into suborbital space in January 1961, was transferred to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., after his spaceflight career. He lived at the National Zoo for many years and died there in 1983; his life and spaceflight are documented in NASA and Smithsonian records. The chimpanzee's presence at the zoo is frequently cited in histories of early human spaceflight and is part of the zoo's mid-20th-century animal history.