Page 34 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2019

BUSINESS&INDUSTRY deep discoveries
FROM THE SEA TO THE STARS
ince the 1960s when NASA’s Stennis Space Center was built in Hancock County, it’s been said that you must go through Mississippi to go to outer space. The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is one of 10 NASA (National Aeronautics
and Space Administration) field centers in the United States and tests rocket engines before space launches.
“For more than 50 years, Stennis Space Center has powered this nation’s great space programs — testing the rocket engines and stages for Apollo and space shuttle missions,” said Dr. Richard J. Gilbrech, director of SSC. “The center has grown into a sprawling federal city, enabling more than 50 resident agencies and partners to join in the NASA mission and to pursue their own endeavors as well.”
story by Lynn Lofton photos courtesy of
John C. Stennis Space Center and Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
One of those resident agencies is the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command with 1,000 civilian, military and contract employees. This Command is responsible for providing oceanography products and services to all elements within the Department of Defense.
“The largest concentration of Navy oceanographers anywhere is at Stennis,” Rear Admiral John A. Okon said at Director Gilbrech’s Annual Briefing. “One quarter of the Oceanography Command’s budget and personnel are headquartered and living here. They breathe life into the capabilities from the depths of the water to the stars.”
Gilbrech said, “Half of our budget goes to human exploration of deep space; now it’s the moon and Mars. It’s pretty exciting.” At age seven, he was impressed when he saw Neil Armstrongs’s walk on the moon,
and he continues to be impressed. “We have a lot of capability and people working on it as we push our deep space efforts.”
Manufacturing partner Michoud assembles the rockets before SSC tests them. The Center has helped power every Apollo human mission to the moon as well as 135 space shuttle flights. Now it’s testing the engines and stages that will be used for deep space missions aboard NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket.
Stennis is also the home of the NASA Shared Service Center, which provides propulsion test services, engineering services, and range utilization opportunities to NASA, the Department of Defense, and other partners in industry and academia.
Stennis Space Center Information
228.688.2211 www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis www.nasa.gov
34 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • August 2019
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