Special to the MBJ, Mississippi Business Journal, Feature Article, May 5, 2016. In April 1966, Lyndon Johnson was president of the United States, protests of the Vietnam War were growing, gas was priced at 32 cents per gallon, (You’re My) Soul and Inspiration was the No. 1 song on the Billboard charts, Bonanza was the No. 1 television show in the country and Ronald Reagan was successfully campaigning to become governor of California.
Beyond Earth, the Russian spacecraft Luna 9 was on the surface of the moon, having soft landed in early February to send back the first photos from the lunar surface. Luna 10 was orbiting the moon, the first manmade craft to do so, while the United States was recovering from the Gemini 8 mission, which reached space but had to be aborted within hours because of a thruster malfunction.
Meanwhile, a group of NASA engineers and operators were tucked away in a small concrete building on a misty spring morning in south Mississippi, working last-minute issues in their attempt to test the first Saturn V rocket stage at what later would become Stennis Space Center.