Stennis takes eyes off moon

HANCOCK COUNTY — The Stennis Space Center in Hancock County will turn to commercial rocket engine testing opportunities after the scrapping of NASA’s back-to-the-moon program.

Stennis director Gene Goldman tells The Sun Herald that work will continue on the center’s A-3 test stand, where testing was to be done on Ares 1 rocket, the planned successor to the space shuttle.

Stennis has served as NASA’s rocket propulsion testing ground for more than four decades. In recent years it has provided propulsion testing for the Department of Defense and the private sector.

Goldman says the A-3 stand is adaptable to other engines. He says seven other test stands at Stennis can handle a wide variety of work.