Ham, born in 1955 in the Cameroons, Equatorial Africa, was trained at Holloman AFB's Aeromedical Research Laboratory, and his name was an acronym for Holloman Aero Med. His training culminated on Jan. 3, 1961, when he rode in a capsule perched atop an 83-foot Redstone rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Reaching a top speed of 5,800 mph and an altitude of 155 miles, he was recovered at sea 420 miles down range from the launch site. He died on 18 Jan. 1983 at North Carolina Zoological Park, N.C. Ham proved that mankind could live and work in space.