Visiting Stennis and Michoud

I am back from my trip to the south to visit the Stennis Space Center and the Michoud Assembly Facility. It is always neat to visit these NASA centers because of all the cool things there is to see and experience there.

The Stennis Space Center is NASA's center for testing the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME's) as well as other smaller engines. While we were there we shot video in many different places...here are a few pictures.

We were lucky enough to be here on a day where they were test firing an SSME. The engine runs for the full duration, 8 1/2 minutes. That's how long it takes the Space Shuttle to get from the ground to orbit. The test is actually going on behind me...pretty cool!


Here we see at least nine nozzles that will be used with the RS-68 engine. These engines are currently used with the Air Force Delta IV rockets, but in the future they will be used to power the Ares V's liquid fueled first stage.


After lunch, I went to see the visitors center and came across the second of three linear aerospike engines. A few posts ago, I blogged about stumbling across engine number three behind a building at the Marshall Space Flight Center. I was told that there were only three made and the third one is in Palmdale, CA. Maybe someday I will get to see engine number one!



The next day we visited Michoud, where they continue to produce the Space Shuttle External Tank and soon will begin making the Ares I Upper Stage. I was told that it takes 15-18 months to build the Shuttle External Tank...

Here are a few pics of some tanks under construction.




This is looking straight into an external tank...





Next week I am going to be visiting a state I have never been to before...Iowa.

Stay tuned for more fun and more thrills!

Should be fun!

I Love My Job!

Please click on the pictures to see the bigger versions.

Also, click on the links, they are added by me in case you want more info...


I shoot video for NASA...I love my job because everyday is different and I never know where I may end up.

I also love NASA history and being surrounded by all things NASA...old and new.

Here are a few pictures I have taken the last few days of either things I was shooting or interesting historical items just "sitting" around.

In this picture, we see a nitrogen truck filling up some tank with, yep you guessed it, nitrogen. I was there to shoot a test related to the Ares program. The "smoke" was really just a harmless byproduct of the liquid nitrogen and the humid air. At least I assumed it was harmless because the guys there didn't yell RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!



Here we see a demonstration of a process called Friction Stir Welding. It will be used to join metal pieces on the new Ares I and Ares V rockets. This set-up at Marshall is just for testing purposes. The real tanks will be welded using this process at the Michoud Assembly Facility (where they currently make the Shuttle External Tank).



These next 5 pictures are various historical engines I have run across lately...

This is what is left of an Aerospike engine that was going to used on the cancelled X-33 program. It was supposed to be a single-stage to orbit craft but the program was cancelled in 2001.



Below, we see 8 or 9 different versions of what I believe is the Fastrac engine that was going to be used to power the X-34. This program was also canceled in 2001.



Here we see an Apollo-era J-2 engine...there were actually 4 of them here. I was told they were brought out of storage to be put on display at various different places.



This is a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)...not sure why it was outside, although it was behind a fence topped with barbed wire...



And last, but certainly not least, an Apollo-era F-1 engine...also pulled out of storage to be put on display somewhere...This is the most powerful single-nozzle liquid fueled rocket engine ever used by NASA (so far...) It produced over 1.5 millions pounds of thrust and 5 of them powered the mighty first stage of the Saturn V! This one appears to have been in storage in two pieces...