Page "North American Aviation" Paragraph 15

The cancellation of the F-107 and F-108 programs in the late 1950s, as well as the cancellation of the Navaho intercontinental cruise missile program, was a blow to North American from which it never fully recovered.

In 1959, North American built the first of several Little Joe boosters which were used to test the escape system for the Mercury Spacecraft.

In 1960, the new CEO Lee Atwood decided to focus on the space program, and the company was the chief contractor for the Apollo Command / Service Module and the second stage of the Saturn V. However, the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 was partly blamed on the company.

In March, it merged with Rockwell-Standard, and the merged company became known as North American Rockwell.

The company changed its name again to Rockwell International and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations in 1973.