Thursday, August 25, 2011

NASA takes over plant

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The 1.6 million square-foot former Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant was formally turned over to NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center Wednesday, increasing NASA's total facility space at SSC by about a third. The Army plant hasn't made munitions since 1990 and was deactivated in 1992. About half the space is already occupied by a dozen employers, including Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the Government Printing Office, Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage. The ceremony was held in the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engine assembly portion of the plant. Attending were NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who said the economic development potential is "tremendous for the Gulf Coast." (Source: Sun Herald, 08/24/11)