September 25, 2008
Under NASA Stennis Space Center’s Engineering and Science Directorate, rocket engine propulsion test activities are conducted on one-of-a-kind national test facilities collectively valued at more than $2 billion. SSC is America’s largest rocket engine test complex and is surrounded by a 125,000-acre acoustical buffer zone, which is considered a national asset. State-of-the-art facilities at SSC include
the A, B and E test complexes, designed for rocket propulsion testing that ranges from component to engine to stage level.
SSC was established as a national testing center for flight-certifying all first and second stages of the Saturn V “Moon Rocket” for the Apollo manned lunar landing program. SSC is the home of NASA’s Rocket Propulsion Test Management Board, which has total responsibility to manage all NASA rocket engine testing, including facilities at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico and the Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio.
SSC works directly with the Rocket Propulsion Test Management Board and the National Rocket Propulsion Test Alliance to provide test services to a variety of customers, including NASA, the Department of Defense and commercial entities for the development of propulsion systems, engines, subsystems and components.
The center conducted the first static test firing of the Apollo Saturn V second-stage prototype engine April 23, 1966, and less than a year later, began testing the first and second stages of the rocket. This testing led to one of humankind’s most phenomenal achievements when, on July 20, 1969, Americans landed on the moon.
When the Apollo Program ended in December 1972, the test stands were converted from the Apollo/Saturn V configuration to accommodate space shuttle main engines, and on May 19, 1975, the first test of an SSME took place. On April 12, 1981, the first space shuttle, Columbia, lifted off from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, powered by engines tested at SSC.
Every SSME undergoes acceptance testing at SSC. The engine is installed vertically in SSC’s A-2 Test Stand, where an acceptance test firing is performed. Once roven flight-worthy, the engine is transported to KSC for installation on an orbiter. SSC also conducts “green
run” testing for major SSME components, SSC’s rocket engine test stands provide test operations for the development and certification of propulsion systems, engines, subsystems and components.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration John C. Stennis Space Center
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000
(228) 688-3333
