ARNOLD AFB, Tenn., Sept. 25 -- Arnold Air Force Base issued the following press release:
Thousands of testing hours were dedicated to the Project Apollo space program throughout the 1960s at what was then known as Arnold Engineering Development Center (https://www.arnold.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4610331/aedc-at-75-aedc-testing-helps-put-man-on-the-moon/), but Center efforts also focused greatly on the precursor to Apollo in the early part of the decade.
Project Mercury, which was launched in 1958 and was the first U.S. manned spaceflight program, preceded Gemini. Through Mercury, Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. Just shy of three weeks later, then-President John F. Kennedy challenged the U.S. to p...