NASA STENNIS INTERESTING FACTS
For five decades and counting, NASA’s Stennis Space 

Center in south Mississippi has served as the agency’s primary 

rocket propulsion test site, providing test services for NASA and 

the Department of Defense, as well as the commercial sector. 

The site is home to NASA’s Rocket Propulsion Test Program, 

which manages all of the agency’s propulsion test facilities. 

NASA Stennis was established in the 1960s to test first and 

second stages of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo lunar 

landing program. NASA Stennis tested 27 Saturn V stages, 

including ones that carried humans to the Moon.

From 1975 to 2009, NASA Stennis tested main engines that 

powered 135 space shuttle missions – 2,307 shuttle main 

engine tests in all for a total firing time of 820,475 seconds. 

NASA Stennis is testing RS-25 engines and stages to help 

power NASA’s new SLS (Space Launch System), which will 

send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024 as part 

of the Artemis missions. NASA Stennis also tested the core 

stage that powered the first SLS flight – Artemis I.

NASA Stennis works with a range of commercial companies

to test the engines and components they need for their own 

space missions. 

NASA Stennis is a major contributor to Gulf Coast economies in 

Louisiana and Mississippi. Its workforce numbers about 5,000. 

In 2022, the center had a direct economic impact of more than 

$715 million within a 50-mile radius.

INFINITY Science Center located just outside of NASA 

Stennis serves as the site’s official visitors facility. The 

72,000-square-foot facility highlights work done at the site in 

support of the nation’s space program.

An active Office of Technology Development at NASA 

Stennis works to develop and share space-related 

technologies that benefit daily life. The branch also 

partners with schools, libraries and institutions to help tell the 

story of how NASA is benefiting all of life.

NASA Stennis is expanding its role in the design, testing, and 

deployment of intelligent and autonomous systems for 

the agency, working on the types of systems needed for critical 

ground and space-based missions.

NASA Stennis consists of two defined areas – a 13,800-

acre area that is home to all site facilities and a surrounding 

125,000-acre buffer zone protecting against the noise and 

power of large rocket engine and stage tests.

Seven-and-one-half miles of canal waterways, featuring a 

lock system, are used at NASA Stennis to transport large rocket 

stages and cryogenic barges to and from the Gulf of Mexico via 

the Pearl River.

About 40 federal, state, academic and private organizations 

and several technology-based companies, including the U.S. 

Navy, conduct business at NASA Stennis. The entities share 

facility operating costs, making it more cost-effective for each 

one to accomplish its independent mission.

NASA announced plans to build a rocket engine test site 

in Hancock County on October 25, 1961. Tree-cutting for 

construction began May 17, 1963. The first hot fire test was 

conducted on April 23, 1966.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics named 

NASA Stennis a historic aerospace site in April 2008.

Front image – Access to NASA’s Stennis Space Center is controlled through a pair of security gates on the north and south ends of the site.

www.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/