by James Vining. 2006 Xeric Winner! In the early 60s, the space race was moving towards its climax. Prior to manned spaceflight, both Americans and Soviets were launching animals up in rockets in order to test the biological viability of manned spaceflight. Extensively researched, First in Space is based on the true story of Ham, a chimpanzee Americans trained for the first sub-orbital spaceflight. This rousing adventure provides a snapshot in time of America's conquest of space.