Interest in SSC rising

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The announcement in early December that Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., would test its engines at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., was the latest in a series of stories over the past few months that point to an intriguing future for the rocket propulsion test center. Stennis Space Center Director Patrick Scheuermann said word is getting out about the test stands, the land available for development and the expertise at SSC, and commercial companies are showing interest. "We had been hearing on sort of an infrequent basis," Scheuermann said about companies interested in working with SSC, "but in the last couple of years the frequency has picked up quite a bit." SSC is home not only to NASA, but a host of other federal and state science and technology operations. (Source: Alliance Insight, "Companies looking at SSC," January 2012) Full newsletter