MASTIF training equipment in use during project Mercury. Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States (1959-1963). MASTIF (Multi-Axis Space Test Inertia Facility) was used to train astronauts how to pull the space capsule out of a potentially dangerous spin and regain control of the spacecraft. The training was conducted at the Altitude Wind Tunnel at the Lewis Research Center, now NASA's Glenn Research Center, at Lewis Field, Ohio, USA. Photographed on 31st December 1959.