Stennis Space Center (SSC) is an American NASA rocket testing facility. It is located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the outskirts of Bay St. Louis. The center was originally built for test firing the first stage of the Saturn V moon rocket. It now tests all types of rockets and engines for NASA, other government agencies, and commercial companies.
The site was selected in 1961 by a panel chaired by Wernher von Braun. The panel chose it because of its proximity to water (the Gulf of Mexico), which would be necessary to cool the rocket engines, and its location outside major population centers (to minimize damage in case of an accident). SSC also offers a variety of facilities and services to support the needs of its tenants and visitors. These include security, fire protection, waste management, power generation and distribution, telecommunications, water treatment and supply, food service, housing, transportation, recreation, medical care, and library services.
The center occupies about 6400 acres (26 km2) of land owned by the federal government; it also leases about 2900 acres (12 km2) from neighboring landowners. Much of the leased land is marsh or swamp that had to be filled or drained before construction could begin. To fill this need,”’ SSCC [stennis space center complex] constructed a 16 miles (26 km) long pipeline from nearby Pearlington ”’. This pipeline brings fresh water from Pearl River into a reservoir at SSC; the water is then pumped through cooling towers to lower its temperature before being used to cool the rocket engines during testing.”’ In addition,”’, three man-made canals were built: two bring salt water from nearby Styx River for use in cooling towers;”’ ”the third provides drainage.”
The topography of SSC’s site presents some challenges,”’, most notably ”’the nearly constant presence of surface moisture due to high humidity and rainfall.”’ As a result,”’ much of the site is covered with pavement ”’to protect against flooding and/or maintain proper drainage.” Another challenge posed by the local environment is hurricanes; ””’Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale””’ rates hurricane strength on a scale from 1 (“weak”) to 5 (“catastrophic”). ””’Hurricane Katrina””’, which made landfall near SSC on August 29th,”” 2005,”” was rated as a Category 5.”