Economic Impact

Economic Impact
NASA’s Stennis Space Center is a significant source of employment and income in the region. If SSC had not been in operation in 2006, considering both direct and indirect effects, a very conservative estimate of reduction in employment for the local area would be more than 19,500 jobs. A similar conservative estimate indicates that personal income would have been reduced by more than $811.4 million, and retail sales would have been reduced by $324.6 million. It is estimated that SSC has an impact on local government tax revenues of $87.6 million. Read more here.

*Study conducted by Dr. Charles A. Campbell, professor of economics, Mississippi State University, February 2

Click here to see video of engine test, image and video courtesy NASA

Rocket Engine Testing
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. The center conducted the first static test firing of the Apollo Saturn V second-stage prototype engine April 23, 1966… This testing led to one of humankind’s most phenomenal achievements when Americans landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969.

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.

SSC also tests and certifies Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s RS-68 engines, and serves as a developmental rocket engine component and subscale test facility for future-generation rocket engines. Read more here.

Space Center Photo credit “image courtesy NASA”

Facts about Stennis
In 2010, the Space Shuttle Program will end and a new ﬂeet of launch vehicles will power America’s next-generation human spacecraft, Orion, which will carry astronauts back to the moon with eventual journeys to Mars. The ﬁrst ﬂight with astronauts aboard is planned for no later than 2014, and the ﬁrst ﬂight to the moon is planned for no later than 2020.

Stennis Space Center will test the J-2X rocket engine that will power the upper stage of NASA’s new crew launch vehicle, the Ares I, and the Earth departure stage of Ares V, the new cargo launch vehicle. NASA has chosen the RS-68 engine to power the core stage of the Ares V, intended to carry large payloads to the moon. All RS-68 engines are assembled and test-ﬁred at Stennis. The Center’s versatile, three-stand E Test Complex with its seven separate test cells serves as a component test facility for future-generation rocket engines. Read more here.

Photo credit, “image of Mars, courtesy NASA”

The New Test Stand
NASA decided May 1, 2007 to build a new rocket engine test stand at its John C. Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi.

The test stand will be will be the first large test stand built since the center’s inception in the 1960s. Construction is set to be complete in August 2010, with engine tests beginning in December 2010.

“May 1, 2007, will be added as another historic day in the chronicles of Stennis Space Center,” said Center Director Dr. Richard J. Gilbrech.

“This new test stand will enable critical testing needed to verify the Ares I upper stage engine performance at altitude conditions. The Apollo-era test stands have served us well over the last 40 years, and I’m excited that NASA will have a new stand to take us into the next 40 years as we aspire to return to the moon and eventually land a human on Mars.”

Lonnie Dutreix, NASA’s formulation manager for the project, said because A-3 will be an altitude testing facility, it will look very different from SSC’s mammoth A Complex and B Complex test stands that were built in the 1960s and are still in use. “It will be very tall, 300 feet, and will have an open steel frame design,” he said. “The construction schedule is aggressive, but very achievable. We’re committed to meet the first J-2X altitude test date of December 2010.” Read more here.

The Case for Space
The Space Foundation has published a magazine with several fascinating articles. Here’s a short excerpt:

There is widespread belief that the space program is a good thing for our nation. But ask why and you’ll get as many different types of answers as there are people.

• According to astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the rationale for our space program has as much to do with national security and the economy as it does with the intangible, indefinable spirit of exploration that is written into our DNA.

The key point, Tyson argues, is that we can enjoy the many benefits of a robust space exploration program and afford to pay for it. In fact, we should probably spend a lot more on something that is so important to our culture but is all too often taken for granted. Read more here.

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