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Chimp's Space Flight a Qualified Success

Nov. 29, 1961 - A male chimpanzee named Enos flew two 17,500-mile-an-hour orbits around the earth today. The flight, in a Project Mercury space capsule, was cut short one orbit ahead of schedule because of mechanical trouble. After the flight, however, it was announced that the first human astronaut to make the orbital trip would be Marine Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. The system for bringing the capsule down from orbit worked perfectly today, and the 5-year-old chimp was recovered from the ocean 250 miles south of Bermuda by the destroyer U.S.S. Stormes. A message from the ship said that when the capsule hatch was opened on the destroyer deck, the 37-pound animal “appeared excitable but in good shape.”


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