page_title: Stennis Space Center
section_title: B-1/B-2 Test stand
hierarchical_section_title: Stennis Space Center / Rocket propulsion test complex / B-1/B-2 Test stand
caption_attribution_description: English: The first flight core stage for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket arrived at Stennis Space Center on Jan. 12 for a series of tests prior to its maiden Artemis I flight. The core stage was transported from Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the B-2 Test Stand dock at Stennis aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge. Soon after arrival, the stage was rolled off of Pegasus onto the B-2 Test Stand tarmac. After the stage is lifted and installed on the B-2 stand, it will undergo a series of “Green Run” systems test that represent the first integrated testing of its sophisticated systems.
context_page_description: The John C. Stennis Space Center is a NASA rocket testing facility. It is located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the banks of the Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border. As of 2012, it is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility. There are over 30 local, state, national, international, private, and public companies and agencies using SSC for their rocket testing facilities.
context_section_description: The B-1/B-2 test stand is a dual-position, vertical, static-firing stand supporting a maximum dynamic load of  11M lbf. It was originally built in the 1960s to simultaneously test the five F-1 engines of a complete Saturn-V S1-C first stage from 1967 to 1970. During the shuttle era it was modified to test the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). Stennis now leases the B-1 test position to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for testing of RS-68 engines for the Delta IV launch vehicle. NASA is preparing the B-2 test position to test the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) in late 2016 and early 2017. The SLS core stage, with four RS-25D rocket engines, will be installed on the stand for propellant fill and drain testing and two hot-fire tests.
  On 17 October 1966 MSFC shipped its S-IC all-system test booster, S-IC-T, to SSC for use in checkout of a static test stand and for use in static firings. Workmen loaded the huge booster aboard the barge Poseidon for the 1,000-mile river journey. Six days later the S-IC-T reached SSC. All future firings would be accomplished at the B-2 stand at MTF.
  An all-systems test version of Apollo/Saturn V first stage, S-IC-T, went into the B-2 test stand at the Mississippi Test Facility on December 17, 1966. Stage electrical and mechanical hook-up to the test stand began immediately. Static firing would occur in early 1967 to demonstrate the facility checkout system.
caption: A Space Launch System Rocket Core at Stennis prior to being lifted onto the B2 test stand
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