Linda Ham - Early Career

Early Career

Born as Linda Hautzinger, Linda Ham grew up outside Kenosha, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside in 1982 with degrees in mathematics and applied science. Soon after graduation, at twenty-one years old, she applied to and was hired by NASA.

Ham's first position at NASA was as a propulsion systems monitor at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This was a "back room" position where she offered real-time specialist advice and support to the Propulsion Engineer, a flight controller in Mission Control. She was soon promoted to a position in Mission Control itself. In 1990, she married U.S. Navy pilot and NASA astronaut Kenneth Ham, with whom she had two sons, Ryan and Randy. (This was Linda's second marriage though she had no children from the first marriage.) Later, as director of her section of flight controllers, she became the first female section director in the center's history. As one of her superiors, Ron Dittemore, later commented, "she had so much talent and her intellect was so strong she could compete with the best in assessing the facts. She rose through the ranks fast at a young age because of her ability to assimilate information."