With a thunderous roar and clouds of smoke and steam, the Stennis Space Center brought to an end one era of space exploration Wednesday and opened another space adventure.

Hundreds of the center’s employees, Hancock County and St. Tammany Parish residents, politicians and media gathered near A-1 Test Stand to watch the test firing of the last space shuttle rocket engine.

It was almost a circus mood at the site. Tents and bleachers had been set up under the hot summer sun. SSC employees were bused in from the far regions of the facility to watch the test. There was excited talk as people waited for the big blast from the 10-story test stand.

Spectators that included NASA employees, children, media and others watch as smoke spews out of test stand A1 during the final test of the space shuttle rocket engine at the Stennis Space Center. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

Ever since the Stennis Space Center was created in 1965, the facility has been testing rocket engines for the Apollo program and the space shuttle.

Ever since 1975, when the SSC tested the first shuttle engine, every one of the 53 engines used on the shuttle have been tested at the SSC. The center’s director Gene Goldman said there have been over 2,000 shuttle engine tests done at the SSC. There have been 126 shuttle missions, and there will be seven more shuttle flights before the space vehicle is retired in 2010.

“There has never been an engine malfunction for any shuttle flight,” said Goldman. “Every shuttle engine must be tested here before it is put on a shuttle.”

For 520 seconds, or eight minutes, the ground shook, and plumes of smoke and steam rose high in the air as the engine’s liquid propellant, a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen exploded into thrust that will help boost the shuttle into orbit above the earth. The engine will be part of the three-engine configuration that will produce 37 million horsepower. One engine alone provides as much horsepower as 28 locomotives. The company Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne builds the shuttle engines.

There was a large cheer and a lot of clapping when the test was completed. It was a proud and bittersweet moment for all the engineers and scientists that participated in the shuttle program.

“It’s been a very emotional day,” Goldman said. “We have people here who worked on the Apollo program.”

Though it was the last time a shuttle engine would be tested, it does not mean that rocket engine testing is over for the SSC.

Even though the shuttle will be retired sometime next year, NASA has already started on its next project, the Constellation Program. This project will put humans back on the moon, and that means new rockets called the Ares 1 and Ares V will be blasting off. For the SSC that means more testing of a new rocket engine called the J2-X.

Already the SSC has started building a test stand in the shadow of the A-1 Test Stand that will be used to test the new engine.

“We are going forward with the J2-X and the Constellation Program,” Goldman said. “This is very exciting, and we are looking forward to it.”