In 1957, Sputnik was launched, being the first human-made object to orbit the Earth; an event that sparked a space race of who can get to the moon first, between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1963, the U.S. Air Force gave Aerojet General, a major rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer, $3 million to start construction of a manufacturing and testing site in Homestead.
By 1969, NASA had decided to go with liquid-fueled engines for the Apollo's Saturn V rockets, causing the workers of the Everglades plant to be laid off and the abandonment of the facility.
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