National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASAfacts

60 Years of Excellence

President John F. Kennedy challenges the nation to send humans to the Moon by 

the end of the decade. 

NASA announces plan to build a national rocket test site in south Mississippi. 

Workmen cut the first tree to begin construction of Stennis. 

Stennis conducts its first test – a Saturn V rocket booster (S-II-T) hot fire. 

Apollo 11, powered by Saturn V rocket stages tested at Stennis, lands the first 

humans on the Moon.

NASA announces Stennis will test main engines for the new space shuttle vehicle.

May 25, 1961 

October 25, 1961 

May 17, 1963 

April 23, 1966 

July 20, 1969

March 1, 1971

For six decades, NASA’s Stennis Space Center has operated as the nation’s premier propulsion test site. Since 

the 1960s, the American human space program has flown on rocket systems and engines tested at Stennis. 

The center now is testing rocket stages and engines that will power the next great era of space exploration, 

which includes a return to the Moon and eventual travel to Mars. Since the 1960s, Stennis has grown into 

the nation’s largest propulsion test site. It also has evolved into a sprawling federal city, home to more than 

50 federal, state, academic, and private organizations, as well as several technology-based companies. The 

site was known by several names before being designated as Stennis Space Center on May 20, 1988. It has 

witnessed a number of historic moments, as the following list and photos illustrate.
Stennis conducts the first space 

shuttle main engine test. 

A flag-raising ceremony marks 

the official move of the Naval 

Oceanographic Program to Stennis. 

Stennis conducts the first test of 

the space shuttle Main Propulsion 

Test Article, with three main engines 

in launch configuration and firing 

simultaneously. 

Construction begins on Stennis 

component test facilities, which will 

grow into the versatile, three-stand, 

seven-test-cell E Test Complex.

For the first time, space shuttle main 

engine are hot fired on all three large 

Stennis test stands in one day. 

NASA administrator designates 

Stennis as the Center of Excellence 

for large propulsion system testing. 

Stennis conducts the 2,000th hot fire 

test of a space shuttle main engine.

NASA designates Stennis as the lead 

center to manage capabilities and 

assets for rocket propulsion testing. 

Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy, and 

the Naval Oceanographic Office cut 

ribbons on new Stennis facilities, 

collectively valued at $60 million.

NASA marks 1 million seconds of 

space shuttle main engine test and 

flight operations during a Stennis hot 

fire on the A-2 Test Stand. 

Stennis celebrates the 30th 

anniversary of space shuttle main 

engine testing at the facility.

Hurricane Katrina makes landfall 

on the Gulf Coast, its eye passing 

directly over Stennis Space Center.

NASA announces the decision to 

build the A-3 Test Stand at Stennis 

to conduct high-altitude testing of 

next-generation rocket engines. 

Stennis conducts a flight certification 

test on space shuttle man engine No. 

2061, the last shuttle flight engine 

scheduled to be built. 

Stennis conducts its 2,307th – and 

final – space shuttle main engine test. 

Stennis conducts the first successful 

test of a AJ26 rocket engine for 

Orbital Sciences Corporation. 

The test project is part of NASA’s 

effort to partner with companies to 

provide commercial flights to space.

Space shuttle Atlantis completes 

the STS-135 mission, the final 

mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle 

Program. As with all previous shuttle 

missions, Endeavour is powered into 

orbit by engines tested and proven 

flightworthy at Stennis.

May 19, 1975

May 28, 1976 

April 21, 1978 

 

January 18, 1989 

August 20, 1990 

December 30, 1991 

July 24, 1992 

May 30, 1996 

August 5, 2002 

January 21, 2004 

August 11, 2005 

August 29, 2005 

May 8, 2007 

October 22, 2008 

July 29, 2009 

November 10, 2010 

July 21, 2011

A Saturn V stage is lifted onto the A-2 Test Stand at Stennis (10-18-65).

Stennis tests the space shuttle Main Propulsion Test Article (1979).
Stennis marks transfer of 1.6 million 

square feet of facility space from the 

U.S. Army, setting the stage for years 

of major expansion at the site.

Stennis leaders plant a time 

capsule celebrating the center’s 

50th anniversary. NASA publicly 

announced plans to build the rocket 

engine test site on Oct. 25, 1961.

The INFINITY Science Center 

opens as the Stennis official visitor 

center. The 72,000-square-foot

facility features space and Earth 

science artifacts and activities.

Engineers conduct a 1,350-second 

test of a J-2X powerpack, the 

longest-duration test firing ever in 

the Stennis A Test Complex. 

Stennis marks a historic moment 

with the first instance of two female 

engineers conducting rocket engine 

tests on the same day at the facility.

Stennis records an historic week 

within its E Test Complex, 

conducting a total of 27 hot fire 

tests on three different rocket 

engines/components on three 

different test stands.

Stennis conducts the first test of an 

RS-25 rocket engine that will help 

power NASA’s Space Launch System.

NASA marks a major milestone 

in its return to deep space human 

exploration with the first test of an 

RS-25 flight engine on the A-1 Test 

Stand at Stennis Space Center. 

Stennis celebrates its 50th 

anniversary of rocket engine testing. 

The Saturn V S-IC-15 rocket stage 

makes a historic return to Stennis, 

en route to permanent display at 

the INFINITY Science Center. The 

stage first traveled the waterway 

route to Stennis for testing in 1970.

Stennis is awarded NASA’s Small 

Business Administrator’s Cup for the 

best overall small business program, 

the second time the site has earned 

the prestigious cup in the award’s 

eight-year history.

NASA tests an RS-25 engine on 

the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis at the 

highest power level ever, reaching 

113 percent of original thrust level.

Stennis signs its first Commercial 

Space Launch Act with Relativity 

Space, a private company developing 

small rocket launch vehicles. The 

company later announces plans to 

build a production facility at Stennis.

A combined team of NASA, 

Defense Advanced Research 

Projects, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 

Boeing, and Syncom Space Services 

personnel achieve an unprecedented 

accomplishment in late June to early 

July by conducting 10 hot fire tests 

of an AR-22 rocket engine in a 240-

hour period. 

NASA caps a six-year process to 

prepare the B-2 Test Stand and 

related support facilities for testing 

the first core stage of the agency’s 

Space Launch System rocket. 

A successful hot fire test culminates 

four-plus years of testing for RS-25 

engines that will send the first

four Space Launch System rockets

into space. The hot fire completes

acceptance testing of all 16 former

space shuttle main engines that will

help launch the first four missions

and concludes 51 months of testing

that demonstrated RS-25 engines 

can perform at the higher power 

level needed for the new rocket.

August 24, 2011

October 25, 2011

April 13, 2012

July 24, 2012

August 16, 2012

November 5-9, 2012

January 9, 2015

March 10, 2016

April 23, 2016

June 16, 2016

May 17, 2017

Feb. 21, 2018

March 21, 2018

June-July 2018

November 2018

April 4, 2019

Stennis conducts its final space shuttle main engine test (7-29-09).
January 21-22, 2020

March 18-May 11, 2020

January 16, 2021

January 28, 2021

March 18, 2021

April 12, 2021

NASA sets the stage for Green Run 

testing of the first Space Launch 

System core stage as the flight article 

is lifted and installed on the B-2 Test 

Stand at Stennis. The stage, which 

will be used to launch the Artemis I

mission, arrived at Stennis on 

Jan. 12 from Michoud Assembly 

Facility in New Orleans. The Green 

Run test series represents the first 

top-to-bottom integrated testing of 

the stage prior to its maiden flight.

NASA suspends core stage testing 

activity on the first Space Launch 

System core stage at Stennis Space 

Center in response to the spread 

of the COVID-19 virus. Limited 

teams return to the B-2 Test Stand 

at Stennis on May 11 to continue 

Green Run testing of the core stage, 

as conditions allow.

NASA and a blended team of test 

operators conduct an initial hot fire 

of its first Space Launch System 

core stage on the B-2 Test Stand at 

Stennis. All four RS-25 engines ignite 

successfully for the test before the 

core stage experiences an automated 

shutdown after 67 seconds.

NASA conducts the first hot fire in 

a new RS-25 single-engine test series 

on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis. 

The test of developmental engine 

No. 0528 marks the beginning of a 

seven-test series to provide data to 

Aerojet Rocketdyne for production 

of new RS-25 engines. 

NASA and a blended test team 

conduct a full-duration test of the 

first Space Launch System core stage 

on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis, 

firing its four RS-25 engines just 

as during an actual launch. The 

test culminates a series of eight 

Green Run tests of the stage and its 

integrated systems, conducted during 

a year marked by the COVID-19 

pandemic restrictions and a 

recordbreaking hurricane season. 

Aerojet Rocketdyne conducts the 

final scheduled hot fire test of an 

RS-68 engine on the B-1 Test Stand 

at Stennis, culminating a Commercial 

Space Act testing partnership of 

more than 20 years with the south 

Mississippi center. The RS-68 was 

the first engine to be both assembled 

and tested at Stennis.

Stennis tests the first core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, firing its four RS-25 engines simultaneously on the B-2 Test Stand (3-18-21).