Stennis - Blog Posts

43 Acres of Aerospace: NASA Co-Op #2 Week Five & Six

If you think NASA is dead then you have probably never personally visited a NASA Center. 27 Johnson Space students had the awesome opportunity to tour the Michoud (Meh-shood) Assembly Facility. Here the Space Launch System (SLS), largest rocket in the world with 20% more thrust than Saturn V, is being built. SLS will send an unmanned Orion Space Craft around the Moon in Fall of 2018. In the history of spaceflight unmanned missions are common to ensure astronauts will be safe. The 43 acre indoor assembly facility is so large you have to ride a tram indoors for a tour. We saw liquid nitrogen tanks, liquid oxygen tanks, rings, domes and all the tools to safely weld/ fasten these parts together. Employees could be seen in hard hats and florescent yellow vests monitoring the tank's construction and creation of parts.

North of Michoud is Stennis Space Center, masters of engine tests and keeper of partners across the US Government. Buildings dedicated to work done by the Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Universities and US Geological Survey for maximum collaboration. Stennis is unique because it is surrounded by a 125,000 acre acoustical buffer zone comprised of local trees. Despite buffer efforts past tests have been known to shatter windows! We were scheduled to see an engine test at test stand A above but we unfortunately missed due to engine technical difficulties. Aerospace engineering is hard guys, I'm glad they are doing what they got to do to ensure a successful mission.

I encourage you to visit a NASA center and take a tour of the facilities offered by the respective center's visitor centers. See for your self the progress toward our journey to mars. Johnson Space offers a tram tour to Mission Control, Mock Up Facility and the Shuttle Systems Test Facility. I am sure other centers offer similar opportunities. NASA visitor centers can be found here.