Today's destination was the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. This unique facility was created in the 1960's to test fire the Saturn V rockets that were being built 40 miles away at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Until you see both of these enormous facilities, you don't really understand the scale of the Apollo program at its peak. To say Stennis Space Center is big is an understatement. It's huge. The Army Corp of Engineers had to acquire five small towns and relocate over 700 people to built the 13,500 acre facility. They needed this much land in order to create a buffer zone that would isolate the entire area from the noise and potential danger of huge exploding rockets.
The rocket test stands were designated as a National Historic Site, but remained unused for many years following the end of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. It took the Artemis program to bring them back to life. The place is buzzing with activity now. The test stands have been completely refurbished in preparation for the Artemis 1 booster that will be arriving before the end of the year from Michoud. The rocket will spend almost a full year here before it is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center for launch.
We also toured the Aerojet Rocketdyne factory at Stennis where the engines for these moon rockets are being assembled. It was the cleanest factory I've ever been at in my life. Even the air is specially filtered to eliminate all dust. We were able to see two of the actual RS-25 engines designated for Artemis 3 which will take astronauts back to the moon. It takes over three years to fully assemble one of these engines. I hope I'm still around to see the results of all this effort.
This trip was an eye opener in many ways. New Orleans feels like you are in a different country. It's a very unique place. I drove across the 24 mile long Lake Pontchartrain Bridge this morning in heavy fog and the sensation was surreal. You couldn't see the water below or much of the bridge ahead of you. It felt like I was driving uphill but this didn't make sense because I was driving over water. It was like I was driving up and up into a thick cloud. If Stairway to Heaven was playing on the radio, the odd sensation would have been complete.
I seemed to have survived eating fried shrimp, beans and rice, and gumbo for three days. I didn't go downtown to eat. I didn't have to. Even the little hole-in-the-wall diner near my East New Orleans hotel had delicious food. There were no tables in this place, so I just ordered a big cup of gumbo and some cornbread like all the other locals and took it back to my room. I doubt that I could eat like this indefinitely. It wouldn't take long to gain twenty pounds.
I'm back in Dallas now. I discovered on my flight that you can text people while you're in the air now. Who knew? We are living in a world where everyone is always connected. My airline, hotel, and rental car reservations were all made using my phone. The whole reason NASA invited me to Stennis in the first place was that the want people like me to use my phone to tell their story. It's a new world out there. Going to the moon is only a part of it.
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