JULY 17, 2024 – July 20, 2024, marks the 55-year anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, humanity’s first steps on a surface beyond the Earth.
Humanity’s mobility on the moon was made possible in part by testing at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), which had occurred virtually since the inception of the American space program in the late 1950s.
In 1966, the mobility test article, a precursor to the lunar rover, came to the proving ground for engineer design evaluations.
Nineteen months after taking his giant leap for mankind, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong visited YPG in February 1971 to witness testing of the AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter, where he was photographed at Castle Dome Heliport alongside then-congressman Lucien Nedzi (right) of Michigan.
Though the AH-56 was cancelled by the Army the following year, the program was a boon to aviation testing at YPG, bringing about the construction of substantial infrastructure like laser and optical tracking sites.
NASA plans to return to the moon and venture further to Mars sometime in the 2030s. When these daring astronauts return to Earth, they will do so safely thanks to the Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) that underwent extensive developmental testing at YPG in recent years.
The first non-test flight of the Orion Multipurpose Crew Capsule, currently projected to occur in late 2025, will be piloted by Victor Glover, an astronaut who was on hand at YPG for multiple developmental tests of the CPAS.
Story by Mark Schauer
U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground