The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is a NASA rocket testing facility in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States, on the banks of the Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border.

There are over 50 local, state, national, international, private, and public companies and agencies using SSC for their rocket testing facilities.

Also, the site required barge access as the rocket stages to be tested for Apollo were too large for overland transport.

After an exhaustive site selection process that included reviews of other coastal locations including Eglin Air Force Base in Florida plus islands in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, NASA announced formation of the Mississippi Test Facility (now known as Stennis Space Center) on Oct. 25, 1961, for testing engines for the Apollo Program.

A high-terrace area bordering the East Pearl River in Hancock County, Miss., was selected for its location.

[2] The selected area was thinly populated and met all other requirements; however before construction began, five small communities (Gainesville, Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa, and Westonia), plus the northern portion of a sixth (Pearlington), and a combined population of 700 families had to be completely relocated off the facility.

The effort acquired more than 3,200 parcels of privately owned land – 786 residences, 16 churches, 19 stores, three schools and a wide assortment of commercial buildings, including nightclubs and community centers.

Remnants of the communities, including city streets and a one-room school house, still exist within the facility.

[3] With the end of the Apollo and Shuttle programs, use of the base decreased, with economic impact to the surrounding communities.

Over the years, other government organizations and commercial entities have moved to and left from the facility, in the balance providing a major economic benefit to the communities.

The two stands are similar steel and concrete structures are roughly 200 ft (61 m) tall, and capable of withstanding thrust loads of more than 1 million pounds and temperature of up to 6,000 °F (3,320 °C).

[7][8] The first full-duration firing of the S-II flight stage occurred 20 May 1966 when S-II-T test-fired on the A-2 test stand for 354.5 seconds.

Under the direction of MSFC, a Board of Inquiry headed by Dr. Kurt H. Debus, Director of Kennedy Space Center, convened on the night of May 28.

[9] S-II-1, the first flight S-II stage scheduled for static firing at MTF, left Seal Beach on July 31, 1966.

The first flight model (S-II-1) of the Saturn V vehicle's second stage arrived August 13, 1966 at MTF completing its 4,000-mile voyage from Seal Beach.

[10] On December 30, 1966, MSFC technicians at the MTF test stand conducted a static firing of the first flight version of the Saturn V second stage, S-II-1.

[12] On January 27, 1967, the S-II-2 stage left Seal Beach, California, to pass through the Panama Canal and on to MTF.

[15] On February 25, 1967, workmen completed construction of the S-II A-1 test stand, and the Corps of Engineers accepted beneficial occupancy with exceptions.

[16] On March 31, failure of a prevalve to close caused program officials to scrub the first attempt to static fire the S-II-2 stage.

[7] It was announced in 1971 that the center would be performing tests on the engines for the new Space Shuttle program (called the SSME).

Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 rocket engines for Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., which partnered with NASA to provide commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station.

Stennis completed testing of all 16 heritage RS-25 engines that will help launch the first four SLS missions as part of NASA's Artemis program on April 4, 2019.

[23] On 13 February 1967 Corps of Engineers personnel completed construction of the S-IC B-2 test stand at MTF.

In 2014, journalists writing for Bloomberg News and the Washington Times criticized the continued construction work on the $350 million test stand, and characterized it as a wasteful earmark by Mississippi U.S. senator Roger F.

As part of Blue's Reusable Booster System (RBS), the engines are designed eventually to launch the biconic-shaped Space Vehicle[clarification needed] the company is developing.

[40] E2 Cell 1, originally known as the High Heat Flux Facility (HHFF), was constructed in 1993 to support materials development for the National Aerospace Plane (NASP).

As of October 2013[update], the SpaceX funding commitment to the methane modification project has not yet been disclosed, as the contract has not yet been finalized and executed.

The facility was to be used to evaluate beam quality, efficiency, and power levels for a prototype megawatt-class hydrogen fluoride laser.

By far the largest of these were elements of the United States Navy with some 3,500 personnel, which was far larger than the NASA civil servant contingent.

Upon the imminent opening of the new INFINITY Science Center, StenniSphere closed its doors to the public on February 15, 2012.