The John C. Stennis Space Center (or SSC), located in Hancock County, Mississippi at the Mississippi/Louisiana border, is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility.
History
Construction of the A-2 test stand
Enlarge
Construction of the A-2 test stand
Construction of the 13,500 acre (55 km²) Mississippi Test Operations complex began in October, 1961. The facility's large cement and metal test stands were originally used to test-fire the first and second stages of the Saturn V rockets. Each of the engines that sent men to the moon in the late 1960s were tested here; not a single one failed during the course of these Apollo missions. In the period of the Space Shuttle program the stands were used to provide flight certification for the Space Shuttle Main Engine.
In part the site was selected because it was thinly populated and it was possible to create barge access to it. Barge access was needed as the rocket motors to be tested for Apollo were too large for overland transport. The chosen site also had to be between the Michoud Assembly Facility just east of New Orleans, Louisiana where the rockets were made and the launch facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Before construction began, five small communities (Gainesville, Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa and Westonia) with 700 families had to be relocated. Remnants of the communities, including city streets and a one-room school house, still exist within the facility.
With the close of the Apollo program use of the base plummeted, with economic impact to the surrounding communities. Over the years other government organizations were moved to the facility, providing a major economic benefit to the communities.
In the 1990s, a new test complex named "E" was constructed to test a variety of new engine concepts. A series of tests conducted there eventually led to the commercialization of hybrid rocket motors, one of which was used to power the first privately funded spaceship, Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne.
Two 250,000 gallon water tanks at the facility, used to test equipment for the Navy, were used to film the underwater sequences in the film Double Jeopardy (film).
The facility has been renamed several times in the course of its short history, becoming the Mississippi Test Facility in 1965, the National Space Technology Laboratories in 1974, and taking its present name in 1988 in order to honor the late Mississippi Senator John C. Stennis for his unwavering support of the national space program.
The facility was damaged in late August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.
2006-09-10 01:50:29
·
answer #1
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
Rocket Propulsion Testing
NASA's Stennis Space Center is America's largest rocket test complex and its state-of-the-art facilities include the A, B and E Test Complexes, designed for rocket propulsion testing that ranges from component to engine to stage level. The unique waterway system and 125,000-acre acoustical buffer zone that surrounds Stennis Space Center are considered national assets, and enable testing of large-scale rocket engines and components.
located in Hancock County, Mississippi at the Mississippi/Louisiana border,
2006-09-09 12:05:56
·
answer #2
·
answered by robert d 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
John C. Stennis Space Center
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source new!
The John C. Stennis Space Center (or SSC), located in Hancock County, Mississippi at the Mississippi/Louisiana border, is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility.
History
Construction of the 13,500 acre (55 km²) Mississippi Test Operations complex began in October, 1961. The facility's large cement and metal test stands were originally used to test-fire the first and second stages of the Saturn V rockets. Each of the engines that sent men to the moon in the late 1960s were tested here; not a single one failed during the course of these Apollo missions. In the period of the Space Shuttle program the stands were used to provide flight certification for the Space Shuttle Main Engine.
In part the site was selected because it was thinly populated and it was possible to create barge access to it. Barge access was needed as the rocket motors to be tested for Apollo were too large for overland transport. The chosen site also had to be between the Michoud Assembly Facility just east of New Orleans, Louisiana where the rockets were made and the launch facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Before construction began, five small communities (Gainesville, Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa and Westonia) with 700 families had to be relocated. Remnants of the communities, including city streets and a one-room school house, still exist within the facility.
With the close of the Apollo program use of the base plummeted, with economic impact to the surrounding communities. Over the years other government organizations were moved to the facility, providing a major economic benefit to the communities.
In the 1990s, a new test complex named "E" was constructed to test a variety of new engine concepts. A series of tests conducted there eventually led to the commercialization of hybrid rocket motors, one of which was used to power the first privately funded spaceship, Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne.
Two 250,000 gallon water tanks at the facility, used to test equipment for the Navy, were used to film the underwater sequences in the film Double Jeopardy (film).
The facility has been renamed several times in the course of its short history, becoming the Mississippi Test Facility in 1965, the National Space Technology Laboratories in 1974, and taking its present name in 1988 in order to honor the late Mississippi Senator John C. Stennis for his unwavering support of the national space program.
The facility was damaged in late August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.
Facilities
In 2005 Stennis Space Center, abbreviated SSC, was home to over 30 government agencies and private companies. By far the largest of these were elements of the United States Navy with some 3500 personnel, which was far larger than the NASA civil servant contingent. Some of the prominent resident agencies include:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Data Buoy Center
A branch of the Naval Research Laboratory
The Lockheed Martin Mississippi Space and Technology Center
The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
A Navy Seal training unit.
The University of Southern Mississippi's High Performance Visualization Center
External links
John C. Stennis Space Center official web site
High Performance Visualization Center homepage
National Data Buoy Center
Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
Movie of a test for a 250K hybrid rocket motor
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday June 17, 2006 at 16:10:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
2006-09-09 11:59:32
·
answer #3
·
answered by englands.glory 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
largest Rocket test complex
2006-09-09 11:57:52
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
Sure, what do you want to know about it? Try the link below.
2006-09-09 11:58:09
·
answer #5
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
no i havnt
2006-09-09 11:58:07
·
answer #6
·
answered by Aspettami28 4
·
0⤊
0⤋