Stennis employees will be at the Powerhouse Community Arts and Cultural Center from 5 to 7 p.m., with a presentation on living and working in space, as well as several educational activities and displays of interest to all ages. Activities targeted for children will include moon phasers and build-your-own rocket transportation, as well as an astronaut ice cream tasting station.
Displays will focus on the 40th anniversaries of the Apollo 11 and 13 lunar missions, the International Space Station and various aspects of Stennis work. Visitors are encouraged to bring cameras to take photos in the astronaut suit display.
Stennis Space Center was established in the 1960s to test the huge Saturn V rocket engines used for Apollo moon missions. The south Mississippi center also has tested every space shuttle main engine used for 130 missions and counting. The facility is preparing to test the next generation of rocket engines to be used in the American space program.
Besides rocket engine testing, Stennis scientists in the Applied Sciences office do work that focuses on Gulf of Mexico issues, such as coastal and wetland preservation. The center is a unique federal city that is home to more than 30 federal, state, academic and private organizations, and numerous technology-based companies. Stennis is recognized as a historical aerospace site by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
For information about Stennis Space Center, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/