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Stennis Space Center, Mississippi

In March, 2004, I took a trip to the Stennis Space Center. This facility is where the Saturn V engines were tested, and the Shuttle engines are being tested. It is NASA's second-largest facility, next to Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also has a large office at this site, as does the US Naval Research Office. So some of the things on display are ocean-oriented.

The image type that is linked from the thumbnail is the scenic (mono) version. Click on the icons below the thumbnail for the various stereo types. For more information on image types used, click here.

This shuttle engine is mounted on a forked dolly for display. The nozzle opening is about 6 feet in diameter.
This is a detail of the Shuttle engine guts.

Looking into the nozzle. The opening to the fuel jets is about one foot across.
A full-scale mockup of a Shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB). They were fortuitously repainting that day, providing some sense of scale against the vehicles we're more familiar with (pickup truck, cherry picker).

This "Oxidizer Hot Gas manifold" is in the museum / visitors' center. The plaque reads, "The hot gas manifold is the sructural backbone of the SSME [Space Shuttle Main Engine]. It serves as the structural base for mounting both the fuel and oxidizer preburners, the main injector, the heat exchanger coil and the high-pressure turbopumps. The manifold transfers hot, hydrogen-rich steam from the high=pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopump turbine discharge to the main injector. The section shown is a portio[n] of the oxidizer-side hot gas manifold, heat exchanger structural shell and internal heat exchanger coils. The intenal coils (tubes) heat and expand liquid oxygen passing through the coils using the heat generated from the high-pressure pump turbine exhaust. Gas generated by this process is used to pressurize the external tank during shuttle operation."

I don't recall exactly, but I think this is a Delta rocket engine. It stands about 7 feet tall. In the background, you can see a Saturn V nozzle behind the white wall. It's 12 feet in diameter.
A closeup of the Delta engine mechanics.

This the top-down view of this Saturn stage 2 engine, if assembled and ready for launch. This would be housed in the section inside the vertical white and black stripes section of the rocket as seen on the model Saturn 1b rocket in the background.
A side view of the same Saturn stage 2 engine. I have a picture of a cluster of these engines mounted on a stage 2 section from the Kennedy Space Center photo set.

A real, tethered Jupiter rocket on display.
A display case inside the museum shows several rockets at the same scale, to enable size comparison amongst the different types. That Saturn V is still the bad boy of the group. It would have been nice to have seen some Russian rockets to compare, too.

This is where the Saturn V rocket engines were tested. The tour guide tells us the NASA logo on the side there is one of two of the largest logos they have. The location of the other logo of the same size is... on the other side of the pad.
Silhouettes of the two Shuttle engine test pads in the late afternoon, taken from inside the tour bus. Alas, I missed the test firing of an engine the day before, but it was a dud - fired for three seconds instead of 8 minutes.

A Gates Learjet Longhorn of some variety, formerly used for atmospheric studies.
Alvin, the pioneering deep-sea sub. It's construction is built around the bathysphere that contains the mariner. You can see the spherical shape at the lower front portion.

A display of four NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) buoys. In the stereo versiom, it helps to note that the background is a curved mirror. It gets confusing.
This is the real version of the model at front right in the previous picture. The deck was almost seven feet above the ground.

	This shuttle engine is mounted on a forked dolly for display. The nozzle opening is about 6 feet in diameter.		This is a detail of the Shuttle engine guts.
	Looking into the nozzle. The opening to the fuel jets is about one foot across.		A full-scale mockup of a Shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB). They were fortuitously repainting that day, providing some sense of scale against the vehicles we're more familiar with (pickup truck, cherry picker).
	This "Oxidizer Hot Gas manifold" is in the museum / visitors' center. The plaque reads, "The hot gas manifold is the sructural backbone of the SSME [Space Shuttle Main Engine]. It serves as the structural base for mounting both the fuel and oxidizer preburners, the main injector, the heat exchanger coil and the high-pressure turbopumps. The manifold transfers hot, hydrogen-rich steam from the high=pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopump turbine discharge to the main injector. The section shown is a portio[n] of the oxidizer-side hot gas manifold, heat exchanger structural shell and internal heat exchanger coils. The intenal coils (tubes) heat and expand liquid oxygen passing through the coils using the heat generated from the high-pressure pump turbine exhaust. Gas generated by this process is used to pressurize the external tank during shuttle operation."
	I don't recall exactly, but I think this is a Delta rocket engine. It stands about 7 feet tall. In the background, you can see a Saturn V nozzle behind the white wall. It's 12 feet in diameter.		A closeup of the Delta engine mechanics.
	This the top-down view of this Saturn stage 2 engine, if assembled and ready for launch. This would be housed in the section inside the vertical white and black stripes section of the rocket as seen on the model Saturn 1b rocket in the background.		A side view of the same Saturn stage 2 engine. I have a picture of a cluster of these engines mounted on a stage 2 section from the Kennedy Space Center photo set.
	A real, tethered Jupiter rocket on display.		A display case inside the museum shows several rockets at the same scale, to enable size comparison amongst the different types. That Saturn V is still the bad boy of the group. It would have been nice to have seen some Russian rockets to compare, too.
	This is where the Saturn V rocket engines were tested. The tour guide tells us the NASA logo on the side there is one of two of the largest logos they have. The location of the other logo of the same size is... on the other side of the pad.		Silhouettes of the two Shuttle engine test pads in the late afternoon, taken from inside the tour bus. Alas, I missed the test firing of an engine the day before, but it was a dud - fired for three seconds instead of 8 minutes.
	A Gates Learjet Longhorn of some variety, formerly used for atmospheric studies.		Alvin, the pioneering deep-sea sub. It's construction is built around the bathysphere that contains the mariner. You can see the spherical shape at the lower front portion.
	A display of four NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) buoys. In the stereo versiom, it helps to note that the background is a curved mirror. It gets confusing.		This is the real version of the model at front right in the previous picture. The deck was almost seven feet above the ground.