February 27, 2008
Paul Foerman, NASA News Chief
NASA Public Affairs Office
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000
(228) 688-1880
Paul.Foerman-1@nasa.gov
RELEASE: CLT-08-016
STENNIS SELECTION USHERS SOUTH MISSISSIPPI INTO THE SPACE AGE
In 1957, Americans, along with people across the globe, gazed at the 
heavens in amazement as the world’s first artificial satellite, the 
Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1, streaked across the sky. President Dwight 
D. Eisenhower responded to this perceived Cold War threat with the 
establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 
1958. NASA was formed from the National Advisory Committee on 
Aeronautics, a group that had researched flight technology for more 
than 40 years. 
President John F. Kennedy’s May 25, 1961, speech to a special joint 
session of Congress set the pace for America’s entry into the space 
race. He said, “I believe this nation should commit itself to 
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on 
the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” 
The goal of landing astronauts on the moon required a place to test 
the large rocket engines that would propel them on that journey. Sen. 
John C. Stennis was a strong supporter and advocate of the American 
space program. He answered Pres. Kennedy’s space exploration 
challenge by recommending the establishment of a rocket engine test 
facility in his home state of Mississippi. Just six months after 
Kennedy’s speech, NASA announced on Oct. 25, 1961, that the 
Mississippi Test Operations, a national rocket test site, would be 
built in Hancock County, Mississippi. 
The area in Hancock County provided access to the Pearl River basin 
and state and U.S. highways, allowing transport of the large engines 
and rocket stages. Isolation from populated communities to buffer 
noise associated with the engines; availability of utilities; 
community support within a 50-mile radius; and a climate that permits 
year-round testing were other NASA requirements for the location. The 
main portion of the site occupies 13,800 acres in the center of a 
125,000-acre acoustic buffer zone, which extends into St. Tammany 
Parish, Louisiana. 
At the time of NASA’s announcement, five communities occupied the land 
alongside the Pearl River that forms what is now known as NASA's John 
C. Stennis Space Center. Gainesville, Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa 
and Westonia had been prosperous 19th century logging communities. 
Gainesville, founded in 1810, was able to boast a former status as 
the one-time seat of Hancock County. Its economic engine was the 
Pearl River Lumber Co. 
Just downriver along the Pearl at Logtown, the H. Weston Lumber Co. 
sawmill was said to be the largest in the United States in 1948, and 
the town’s population peaked at 3,000 around that time. Millions of 
board feet in lumber, cut from the surrounding virgin pine forests 
and cypress swamps, passed through the river towns’ sawmills, feeding 
the construction of railroads along the Gulf Coast. 
Unfortunately, the effects of the Great Depression and World War I 
closed the lumber businesses and caused a decline in population. When 
the Army Corps of Engineers began land acquisition negotiations in 
1962, only 250 residents remained at Logtown and 100 at Gainesville. 
Relocating the residents of Gainesville, Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa 
and Westonia was an enormous undertaking. Construction began at MTO 
in 1963, and by that fall, the last remnants of the communities had 
been safely moved. By that time, 660 families had given up their 
homes to make way for the future. 
Construction was sufficiently completed for the site to be activated 
for testing in 1966, only three years after it began. The first 
static test-firing of a Saturn V engine stage was conducted April 23 
of that year. Less than four years later, astronauts Neil Armstrong 
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface, safely transported 
thousands of miles by the Saturn V rocket, powered by engines tested 
at SSC. The test stands that were built to test those rocket engines 
are still in use. 
Today, SSC is America’s largest rocket engine test complex. The South 
Mississippi facility’s main line of business is testing and proving 
flight worthy every space shuttle main engine. Since the first space 
shuttle launch in 1981, each flight has been propelled by engines 
tested at SSC. 
As the Space Shuttle Program is drawing to its conclusion, a new fleet 
of launch vehicles is transitioning to take its place. SSC is 
preparing to test the rocket engines that will power NASA’s next 
generation of spacecraft, Orion, which is being designed to carry 
astronauts back to the moon with eventual journeys to Mars. 
SSC will test NASA’s Constellation Program 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. The Ares I and V vehicles will provide the thrust, while the 
Orion crew capsule will be future astronauts’ home in space. SSC 
recently broke ground for a new rocket engine test stand that will 
perform altitude tests on the J-2X engine, which is derived from 
Apollo’s Saturn V rockets, tested at the center more than 40 years 
ago. 
Over time, SSC has evolved into a multidisciplinary facility. Thirty 
other resident agencies, including the U.S. Navy's world-class 
oceanographic research community, work alongside NASA's rocket 
scientists, and are engaged in space and environmental programs and 
national defense. Today SSC is home to modern-day explorers creating 
a high-tech network involving space, oceans and Earth. NASA’s 
construction of the new A-3 Test Stand ensures that SSC and south 
Mississippi will continue to play a vital role for the next 
generation of space pioneers. 
For information about Stennis Space Center, visit: 
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/ 
Related Multimedia:
+http://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/news/releases/2008/CLT-08-016-cptn.html
	
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