Hernando de Soto may have passed through. In the ensuing years, shipwrecks left Spanish coins and other treasures in the waters offshore. Banana River Naval Air Station provided the base and the federal government provided much of the neighboring land. Expanding into a rocket-launching site, Stewart and others reasoned, would be easy. It was hard, though, working in this harsh, humid land.
Workers let some air out of car tires to ease travel on the sandy roads.
Soldiers shooed away snakes sunning on the concrete pad. Members of the launch team kept fire extinguishers in their tents to squirt rattlers. The mosquitoes were fierce. They made do. The painters' pipe scaffolding served as the launch tower, a utility pole as the hookup for power umbilicals to the 60-foot rocket.