Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Test

Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Test

Space Shuttle Main Engine Test

John C. Stennis Space Center

Stennis Space Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.)

NASA

After the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, many systems were upgraded to return the Space Shuttles to flight. As part of those upgrades, the main engines were redesigned and then tested by a static firing at John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. The Space Shuttle was meant as a reusable alternative to the traditional ballistic rockets used to launch manned spacecraft in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1981 to 2011, when the fleet was retired, five shuttles were flown over 130 times. It was the first space launch system, which was mostly reusable (the shuttles themselves and the solid rocket boosters). Shuttles were launched from Launch Complex 39A and Launch Complex 39B at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Merritt Island, Florida.

Original color photographic print: Leonard Pugh Collection.

ca. 1987

Digital reproduction of original color photographic print.

Florida Space Coast History Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.

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162 KB

1 color photographic print

eng

Still Image

John C. Stennis Space Center, Mississippi

Donation

History Teacher

Civics/Government Teacher

Copyright to this resource is held by Leonard Pugh and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.

Michlowitz, Robert

Cepero, Laura

"The Shuttle." National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Accessed August 21, 2015. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/the_shuttle/.

1 color photographic print