Aerojet solid fuel technology was under consideration for use in Apollo's Saturn V first stages. In 1963, the U.S. Air Force provided Aerojet General with $3 million in funding to start construction of a manufacturing and testing site several miles southwest of Homestead, Florida. Aerojet acquired the land for the plant less than five miles from Everglades National Park. A facility was constructed where the motors could be built and tested.

A 21-foot-diameter rocket motor was designed, which was too big to be transported by rail. A plan was devised where the rocket motors would be transported by barge to Cape Canaveral. To facilitate barges, a canal was dug called C-111. This canal became the southernmost freshwater canal in Southeast Florida and was dubbed the "Aerojet Canal". Efforts are being made to remediate the long-term environmental damage caused by the canal, which includes the redirection of fresh water.
Aerojet needed a cylindrical chamber that would withstand the force and power a space-faring rocket would cause. Aerojet subcontracted the fabrication of 260-inch-diameter. The chambers were designed in short-length, meaning half the size of what the final product would be, hence the names given to the test rockets, SL-1, SL-2 and SL-3. Both motors used a propellant burning rate and nozzle size appropriate for the full length design and were capable of about 1,600,000 kgf thrust for 114 seconds. The large amount of propellant needed for such a rocket was manufactured at the Everglades plant.

An ignition motor, a knocked-down Polaris missile B3 first stage known as “Blowtorch,” was used to jump-start the motor. Between Sept. 25, 1965 and June 17, 1967, three static test firings were done. SL-1 was fired at night, and the flame was clearly visible from Miami 50 km away, producing over 3 million pounds of thrust. SL-2 was fired with similar success and relatively uneventful. SL-3, the third and what would be the final test rocket, used a partially submerged nozzle and produced 2,670,000 kgf thrust, making it the largest solid-fuel rocket ever.
Problems arose during the third test when, near burnout, the rocket nozzle was ejected, causing propellant made of hydrochloric acid to be spread across wetlands in the Everglades and a few crop fields and homes in Homestead. Many residents of Homestead complained about the damage done.

By 1969, NASA had decided to go with liquid-fueled engines for the Saturn V rockets, causing the workers of the Everglades plant t
be laid off and the abandonment of the facility.

Music from Artlist: Roise Shpigler- Gibraltar, DaniHadani- Sercet 3, Stephen Keech- The Void,
Seroo- With you