Mississippi Test Facility

John C. Stennis Space Center

The B-1/B-2 Test Stand holding space shuttle components (1987)
Agency overview
Formed	1961
Preceding agencies	Mississippi Test Operations National Space Technology Laboratories
Jurisdiction	U.S. federal government
Headquarters	Hancock County, Mississippi
Agency executive	Richard J. Gilbrech, director
Parent agency	NASA
Website	Stennis Space Center home page

Rocket Propulsion Test Complex
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Static Test Firing S-1C Saturn V Mississippi Test Facility MTF
Show map of Mississippi Show map of the US
Location	Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Built	1965
Architect	NASA
NRHP reference #	85002805
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 3, 1985
Designated NHL	October 3, 1985

The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is a NASA rocket testing facility. It is located in Hancock County, Mississippi (United States), on the banks of the Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border. As of 2012^[update], 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.

The initial requirements for NASA's proposed rocket testing facility required the site to be located between the rockets' manufacturing facility at Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana, and the launch facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Also, the site required barge access as the rocket motors to be tested for Apollo were too large for overland transport. Additionally, the Apollo motors were too loud to be tested at Marshall Space Flight Center's existing test stands near Huntsville, Alabama. A more isolated site was needed.

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. NASA entrusted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the difficult task to procure each land parcel either by directly purchasing the land or through acquisition of a perpetual easement.