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\par \par \par 					John C. Stennis Space Center Rocket Engine Testing\par \par 	For more than four decades, NASA John C. Stennis Space Center, located in south Mississippi, has served as NASAs rocket propulsion testing ground. Today, the center provides propulsion test services for NASA and for the Department of Defense, as well as the private sector.\par \par The unique waterway system and 125,000acre acoustical buffer zone that surrounds SSC are considered national assets, and enable testing of largescale rocket engines and components. SSC was initially established as a national testing center to flightcertify all first and second stages of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo manned lunar landing program. Since 1975, the centers primary mission has been to test the main engines that propel the space shuttle during its 8 ½minute ascent to orbit.\par \par In 2010, the Space Shuttle Program will end and a new fleet of launch vehicles will power Americas nextgeneration spacecraft, Orion, which will carry astronauts back to the moon with eventual journeys to Mars. SSC is testing core components for the J2X rocket engine that will power the upper stage of the new crew launch vehicle, Ares I, and the Earth departure stage of Ares V, the new cargo launch vehicle. The J2X engine is derived from Apollos Saturn V rockets that were tested at Stennis 40 years ago.NASA has chosen the RS68 engine to power the core stage of the Ares V, intended to carry large payloads to the moon. The prime contractor for the RS68 engine is Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. All RS68 engines are assembled and testfired at SSC. SSC hosts the rocket propulsion test program, managing the propulsion test facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the White Sands Centers Plum Brook Station in Ohio, as well as the\par test facilities at Stennis.\par \par SSCs stateoftheart test facilities include the A, B and E complexes, designed for rocket propulsion testing from component to engine to stagelevel. The A3 Test Stand currently under construction at Stennis will be used to prove the J2X engines. SSCs versatile, threestand E Test Complex with its seven separate test cells serves as a component test facility for futuregeneration rocket engines.\par \par SSCs rocket engine test stands provide test operations for the development and certification of\par propulsion systems, engines, subsytems and components.\par \par FS20080100054SSC\par National Aeronautics and Space Administration\par John C. Stennis Space Center\par Stennis Space Center, MS 395296000\par (228) 6883333\par NASA Facts\par \par }