On Oct. 25, 2021, NASA’s Stennis Space Center marks the 60th anniversary of the agency’s announcement to build a propulsion test site in south Mississippi. The following 60 fun facts offer a glimpse of the historic site that has powered the nation’s space dreams for six decades and counting.

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Stennis @ 6060 Facts Spanning 60 Years

l NASA publicly announced plans to open a rocket engine test facility in Hancock County in south Mississippi on Oct. 25, 1961.

l Construction of Stennis Space Center facilities necessitated the relocation of 660 families.

l In an area meeting after NASA announced plans to build a test site in Mississippi, then-U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis told a gathering of area residents, “There is always the thorn before the rose. ... You have got to make some sacrifices, but you will be taking part in greatness.”

l Tree-cutting for construction of test facilities at Stennis began May 17, 1963.

l During construction at Stennis in the 1960s, some 6,100 employees were onsite with 30 prime and 250 subcontractor companies.

l Workers endured snakes, mosquito infestations, and inclement weather in constructing Stennis. Category 4 Hurricane Betsy hit the Gulf Coast area on Sept. 10, 1965, but failed to derail the building project, one of the largest underway in the U.S. at the time.

Stennis conducts its first test of an RS-25 engine – to help power NASA’s Space Launch System rocket – on the A-1 Test Stand on Jan. 9, 2015.

Historical Facts

l Early on, rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun affirmed the importance of Stennis by stating, “I don’t know yet what method we will use to get to the Moon, but I do know that we have to go through Mississippi to get there!”

l NASA first named its propulsion test facility as Mississippi Test Operations, then National Space Technology Laboratories. It was designated Stennis Space Center by presidential proclamation on May 20, 1988.

Stennis Space Centerl Stennis features a seven-and-a-half-mile canal network, which

includes a lock system that allows transport of large rocket stages and cryogenic barges from the Gulf of Mexico to on-site locations via the Pearl River.

l All Stennis facilities are located within a federal-owned 13,800-acre “fee” area. The area is surrounded by a 125,000-acre acoustical buffer zone, which is designated a national asset and allows for large-scale test activities to be conducted 365/24/7 without disturbing area residents and businesses.

l In April 2008, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics named Stennis a historic aerospace site.

l Stennis has been affected by numerous tropical storm systems through its 60 years, including several major hurricanes – Betsy (1965), Camille (1969), Katrina (2005) and Zeta (2020).

l Stennis serves as a major economic engine for the Gulf Coast region. In 2020, the direct global economic impact of Stennis was $877.9 million. The direct economic impact within a 50-mile radius of the facility was $656.6 million.

l A national center for research, military logistics, and applied science, in 2020, Stennis spent almost 74 cents of every dollar within a 50-mile radius from the center.

l More than half of all Stennis employees (52 percent) hold a bachelor’s degree or greater.

l Sixty-two percent of Stennis employees live in three surrounding Mississippi counties – Hancock, Harrison and Pearl River. About

30 percent of site employees reside in Louisiana, primarily in St. Tammany Parish.

l In 2012, Stennis partnered with a community foundation to open nearby INFINITY Science Center. The 72,000-square-foot facility serves as the center’s official visitors center and features a mix of exhibits and activities, allowing guests to explore Earth and space through artifacts, tours, memorable experiences, educational programs, and citizen science opportunities.

l In 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration expanded the restricted airspace at Stennis, enabling the site to perform propulsion testing safely and allowing Stennis tenants to

effectively and efficiently conduct military exercises.

l NASA consistently ranks as the best place to work in the federal government, with Stennis ranked at or near the top among the agency’s 10 individual centers.

Propulsion Testingl Stennis is America’s largest

rocket propulsion test site with testing facilities valued at more than $2 billion.

l NASA’s Rocket Propulsion Test Program Office is located at Stennis. The office is responsible for managing test assets, activities, and resources across the agency.

l The three original test stands at Stennis are the single-position, vertical-firing A-1 Test Stand and A-2 Test Stand, and the dual-position, vertical-firing B-1/B-2 Test Stand.

l In 2007, Stennis broke ground for construction of the A-3 Test Stand, the first large test facility to be built on site

since construction of the original test stands in the 1960s.

l The A-3 Test Stand at Stennis is the only stand in the country with the combined capabilities to conduct long-duration testson full-scale engines at simulated altitudes up to 100,000 feet, and to gimbal, or pivot, the engines during testing as they must operate in flight.

l A versatile E Test Complex at Stennis includes seven separate cells capable of various component, engine, and stage test activities.

l Stennis is among the world’s largest consumers of liquid hydrogen – one of the primary fuels used in rocket propulsion testing.

A young INFINITY Science Center visitor dreams of a space future.

Apollo Programl First and second Saturn V rocket stages for NASA’s Apollo

Program were tested at Stennis, including those that propelled humans to the Moon on seven lunar missions from 1969 to 1972.

l Stennis operators conducted the first-ever rocket engine test at the site on April 23, 1966, a 15-second firing of a Saturn V second stage prototype (S-II-C).

l During the Apollo Program years, Stennis engineers conducted 43 test firings. The accumulated experience of the test team members amounted to 2,475 man-years of rocket engine test expertise.

l The Stennis team tested 27 Saturn V rocket stages in the Apollo years. All of the stages that were launched performed their designated missions without a single failure.

Space Shuttle Programl Stennis operators conducted

the first full-duration test of a space shuttle main engine on June 24, 1975. The center went on to test all main engines used to launch 135 shuttle flights from 1981 to 2011. Stennis conducted its last test of a space shuttle main engine on the A-2 Test Stand on July 29, 2009.

l In April 1978, Stennis conducted the first test of the space shuttle main propulsion test article with three main engines configured as they are on a shuttle orbiter during flight. All three were fired simultaneously on the B-2 Test Stand to prove the propulsion system flightworthy.

l All modifications and configurations of space shuttle main engines were tested and proven flightworthy at Stennis before being flown on a mission.

l Space shuttle main engines at Stennis were test fired for 520 seconds (more than eight minutes), the same time the engines fire during an actual flight to enable the shuttle to reach orbit.

l On Aug. 20, 1990, for the first time, space shuttle main engines were tested on all three large test stands at Stennis in a single day.

l The 1 millionth second of space shuttle main engine test firing was recorded at Stennis on Jan. 24, 2004, during a test conducted on the A-2 Test Stand.

Space Launch System / Artemis Programl Stennis remains at the forefront of America’s space programs,

testing rocket stages and engines for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that will carry humans back to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.

l NASA’s Space Launch System will be powered at launch, in part, by four RS-25 engines. Stennis conducted the first RS-25 engine test on Jan. 9, 2015, and will test all RS-25 engines for the rocket.

l Stennis is conducting both developmental and flight hardware testing for RS-25 engines on the historic A-1 Test Stand. This includes testing of new cutting-edge flight components, such as

3D-printed parts.

l A hot fire on April 4, 2019, concluded 51 months of RS-25 testing on the A-1 Test Stand for Phase 1 of the RS-25 engine restart program and completed acceptance testing of all 16 engines that will help launch the first four Space Launch System missions.

l Green Run testing of the first Space Launch System core stage was conducted on the B-2 Test Stand in 2020 and early 2021. The test series marked the first time the new core stage had been fully powered up and culminated with a hot fire of its four RS-25 engines, just as during a launch. Following Green Run, the core stage was delivered to Kennedy Space Center for use on the maiden Artemis I mission.

l Stennis is preparing to test the Exploration Upper Stage for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. The Green Run testing of the new rocket stage is

scheduled to be conducted on the B-2 Test Stand.

Partnership Testingl In 1998, Stennis partnered with Aerojet Rocketdyne to test RS-68

engines used for Delta IV rocket launches. It marked the first longterm commitment to allow Stennis test facilities to be used for commercial purposes.

l Stennis has worked with multiple commercial test partners to test engines and components needed for their individual space missions. These include companies such as Blue Origin, SpaceX, Launcher, and Aeon.

An A-1 Test Stand camera offers close-up view of RS-25 hot fire.

l In 2010, Stennis Space Center partnered with Orbital Sciences Corporation to test Aerojet AJ26 rocket engines to power early commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station. Testing ended in 2014, after Orbital Sciences suffered a mission loss and switched to a different engine.

l In 2018, Stennis entered into its first Commercial Space Launch Act with Relativity Space, a company focused on developing small rocket launch vehicles. The company has since expanded the partnership to plan construction of an on-site production facility.

Mission Supportl In 2010, Stennis created its first teaching curricula, focused on

teaching differences between mass vs. weight and on Newton’s Laws of Motion. The curricula now is electronically available to teachers around the world.

l As part of its STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) efforts, Stennis supports face-to-face and virtual K-12/Higher Education programs through numerous avenues: Educator Professional Development workshops; FIRST® Robotics; higher education internships and fellowships; STEM museum events; and community school learning collaborations.

l The Stennis ASTRO CAMP® program is designed to support K-12 STEM programs by helping organizations, universities, museums, schools, and libraries to inspire and engage students in STEM content. Through community partnerships, the camp serves thousands of students across multiple states.

l Stennis hosts various outreach events, museum visits, student programs, community activities, Speakers Bureau presentations, and an annual Girls Excited about Math and Science gathering.

l Stennis has a solid social media presence, counting more than 280,600 combined followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

l The Stennis Test Technology Branch maintains a network across Louisiana and Mississippi to help increase awareness about the benefits of NASA in everyday life, highlight the technological contributions of Stennis, and encourage students to pursue STEM careers.

l Stennis is a leader in the design and deployment of autonomous systems for NASA.

l The Stennis Test Technology Branch helps to patent Stennis-developed technologies and license NASA software around the world.

l The NASA Shared Services Center opened at Stennis in August 2008 to consolidate procurement, human resources, information technology, and finance activities from across the agency in a single central location.

Federal Cityl Stennis is a model

for government efficiency. NASA and more than 50 federal, state, academic, private, and technology-based organizations pursue individual missions but share basic operating costs to create a unique federal city.

l The Mississippi Technology Transfer Center has been located

at Stennis since 1987, working to help businesses increase productivity, improve existing products and services, develop new products, find needed materials and realize greater competitiveness.

l Since 1998, the U.S. Navy has conducted training for the Special Boat Team TWENTY-TWO special operations riverine force on waterways at Stennis.

l Stennis is home to the largest concentration of oceanographers in the world.

l Five schools operate a center of higher learning at Stennis – Mississippi State University, Pearl River Community College, the University of New Orleans, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi.