The two smaller stands, A-1 and A-2, were built to test the Saturn V rockets. The center originally boasted three test stands. The first static test firing occurred on April 23, 1966, and continued well into the 1970s. The Rocket Propulsion Test Complex, built in 1965, played an important role. The center's primary mission was to flight certify all of the first and second stages of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program. Stennis Space Center in honor of the senator, "for his steadfast leadership and staunch support of the nation's space program," NASA said. In 1965, it was renamed the Mississippi Test Facility, and in 1974 it became the National Space Technology Laboratories. The agency has gone through multiple names since its original. Interred bodies from at least four cemeteries were exhumed and relocated.īuilding the facility was the largest construction project in the state of Mississippi and the second largest in the nation at the time. Ultimately, NASA and the corps would need to acquire more than 3,200 parcels of privately owned land, including 786 residences, 19 stores, three schools, and an assortment of commercial buildings. To create the 13,000-acre site, the Army Corps of Engineers purchased more than 3,200 parcels of privately owned land, sometimes through acquisition of perpetual easement and lawsuits. "They had lived there all their lives and expected to retire and die on their ancestral lands," according to a 2012 issue of Stennis' newsletter. The choice was not ideal for the remaining residents of logging communities, many of whom were descended from the original settlers from the 1700s. "You have got to make some sacrifices, but you will be taking part in greatness." "There is always the thorn before the rose," Stennis told the citizens in what has since become a legendary quote in the center's history. Stennis met at the Logantown school with nearly 1,500 residents and promised full compensation for their land and homes. 25, 1961, NASA announced its intent to build what was then known as the Mississippi test facility in Hancock County, Mississippi. While early rocket flights took place at Marshall Space Center in Alabama, the growing boosters created too much noise for the small community, causing NASA to turn its eyes elsewhere. The river provided water access necessary to move the large and heavy rocket components to their launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The selection of the Mississippi site was a logical and practical one," according to NASA's website.
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