Paco Hickam
Memorial
Paco was the beloved cat of Homer Hickam who lived with him throughout all of Homer's NASA years. He was a sweet cat who always made everyone feel good any time he was around. During Homer's many months away from home to train astronauts, Paco was taken care of by the Paco Support Team (PST) who dearly loved him. One of them was Homer's future wife Linda. During a Spacelab mission, Paco comforted a lonely astronaut while she was in orbit by talking to her and therefore became the first cat to meow in space. Paco passed away when he was 18 years old and is still missed by the PST but all are happy that a young person will attend Space Camp on a scholarship named after this prodigious cat.