The 50-year-long saga of the United States Air Force's space CHIMPS— descendants of a colony established by the Air Force in the 1950s to test the effects of space travel—is drawing to a close. Last fall the Coulston Foundation, a biomedical research facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, transferred its 266 chimps and 61 monkeys, along with lab space and equipment, to a Florida-based primate sanctuary for $3.7 million.
The two original space-chimp pioneers are long gone: Enos died of dysentery six months after orbiting Earth in 1961, and Ham died in 1983. Others were used in space-related research on the ground. After the 1960s, the Air Force leased the animals to other labs, including the Coulston Foundation. In 1998 the government formally awarded the bulk of its 140-member colony to Coulston. Animal-rights groups have lobbied vigorously to free the chimps from allegedly inhumane treatment there. Between 1995 and 2001, the ...
