The Apollo program took the first humans to a landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The 12-foot Apollo command module was built at North American Rockwell’s plant at Downey, Calif. North American also built a 150-foot-high impact test facility, It looked like a gigantic playground swing and was used to check the module’s structural integrity and impact loads by drop-testing it on water, sand, gravel and boulders.