Mercury-Redstone 2

US #1193 pictures Friendship 7, which carried John Glenn on the first successful American orbit of the Earth. Click image to order.
On January 31, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 2 launched Ham the Chimp into space.
Begun in 1958, Project Mercury was the program to launch the first American into space. Before sending people into space, NASA did a series of unmanned test flights, leading to Mercury-Redstone 2.