STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss — Stennis Space Center celebrates its 60th anniversary on Monday, Oct. 25, marking the date in 1961 that NASA announced plans to build a rocket propulsion test site in south Mississippi.
NASA officials have used the site in many launches including the Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s
"We need test facilities to hold down big rockets while we fire them off to keep them from going airborne, all of the Apollo Missions that captured the world's imagination all of those missions were launched for certified for flight at the Stennis Space Center," Rodney McKellip with NASA said.
Before rockets are launched into space, the rockets are tested at Stennis in Hancock County, Mississippi. NASA officials say now the site is testing rockets for the Space Launch System which will also be another moment in history when a woman and person of color goes into space.
"We're in a new era, of a new rocket that Nasa is developing, the SLS, the Space Launch System which will be the rocket that will power astronauts flight and return to the moon, this decade, and next decade like sending astronauts to Mars," McKellip said.
The SLS is expected to be launched in February of 2022.
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