CIC41: Tools of the Trade - Exhibition Category

These ladies are school teachers taking a tour at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. They are standing on one rocket engine test stand while taking photos of two other test stands in the distance. The test stand at right and the one the ladies are standing on were used to test the rocket engines that powered the Apollo spacecrafts to the moon and also to test the engines that flew the Space Shuttles until that program ended. The white test stand at left in the distance is a newly completed test stand that was built to test engines for a spacecraft that would fly astronauts to Mars. Unfortunately that program was cancelled and that test stand has been "mothballed" without ever having been used. Additional information here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/15/nasas-349-million-monument-to-its-drift/.