Holloman Air Force Base
Inscription
(Side 1): Alamogordo Army Airfield was a World War II training ground for bombing crews six miles north of here. Renamed for Col. George V. Holloman during the Cold War, it has been a pioneering military and aviation discovery center ever since. In 1954, Lt. Col. Dr. John P. Stapp reached 632 mph in a rocket sled on Holloman’s test track to become the “Fastest Man Alive.
” (Side 2): Captain Joseph Kittinger leapt from an open balloon gondola at 102,800 feet while testing high altitude bailouts from the base in 1960. He set world records for highest and longest parachute jump, and reaching speeds of 614 mph became the fastest human propelled through Earth’s atmosphere.
Ham, (Holloman Aero-Medical) the Astrochimp, trained here and was the first primate to prove tasks could be completed in space during a successful suborbital launch in 1961.
Location
Sources
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