In the race to space against the Soviet Union, Project Mercury was created to put the first American into orbit and have him return safely.  The program was also designed to see if a human could stand the rigors of space travel.  These included micrometeroids, radiation, noise, vibration, acceleration forces, microgravity, and the vacuum of space.  NASA did not want to send a human out on the first try, so they picked an "astrochimp" named Ham to test the variables of space travel.

Loading of Mercury Capsule.

During Ham's flight, Ham showed that he could concentrate and pulling and pushing leaver's by reacting to flashing lights in front of him.  He also endured the weightlessness state for 1.7 minutes longer(6.6 minutes totaled) than scheduled 4.9 minutes.  During the landing phase of the flight, Ham desecended at a much higher rate than anticipated because of a malfunction during launch.  This caused a puncture in the capsule at splash down, and the capsule began to fill with water.
Mercury Redstone 2 Launch

Ham's flight on MR-2 was a significant accomplishment on the American route toward manned space flight. Now NASA  knew that even with some hazardous malfunction it might reasonableto complete a manned ballistic mission successfully. Ham's survival, despite a host of harrowing mischances over which he had no control, raised the confidence of the astronauts and the capsule engineers alike.  This success paved the way Alan Sheperd's sub-orbital space trip, the very first by an American astronaut.

Ham's post flight exam

By: Chad Carter

References:

•  http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/mr-2/mr-2.html
•  http://www.casciencectr.org/Exhibits/Exhibits.php
•  http://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/cf/result2.cfm?mis_index=164
•  http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mr-2/mr-2.htm
•  http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/contents.htm
•  http://www.worldspaceflight.com/america/index.html
•  http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/html/pao/merunman.htm