JACKSON, Miss. --

Mix, the center's director of propulsion testing, has been with the space agency since the start of the Apollo program in the 1960s and continues to check the main engines used by this generation's Space Shuttle.

It all happens in a remote part of Hancock County, near the banks of the Pearl River, where 40 years ago NASA chose the swampy southwest Mississippi site to build the nation's lead rocket test facility.

``It's a remarkable place,'' said Mix, an Idaho native and engineer who joined NASA after serving in the Army. ``I've had the opportunity to span the space program here - from going to the moon to where we are today.''

Four decades after pioneer German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun launched the test-site project, Stennis has evolved into a world-class research facility where more than 30 government agencies and private partners oversee programs involving space exploration, weather and national defense, among others.

The U.S. defense, commerce, transportation and interior departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, several universities and the states of Louisiana and Mississippi have offices for research and other activities.

Stennis has the largest number of oceanographers in one place than anywhere else in the world. The center also plays a vital role in the economic health of South Mississippi, employing 4,600 people and attracting companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin to a region better-known for casino gambling.

``The fact that we live together in this amazing place is a model that's recognized around the country,'' said Mark Craig, Stennis Space Center's acting director. ``We're asked all the time, 'How do you do this? What's your business model? Isn't this illegal?' It's really unique in government.''

The center's primary mission continues to be managing NASA's rocket propulsion test programs. Every Space Shuttle main engine is tested at Stennis.

The engines are placed vertically on one of two large test stands, where a series of test firings are performed. Once proven flight worthy, the engines are transported to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for installation on an orbiter.

``I still get a moist eye when I see a launch,'' Mix said. ``It never gets old.''

When the federal government announced it would buy the large tract of land for the site in October 1961, then-Mississippi Sen. John C. Stennis was called upon to explain the importance of the project to the more than 2,000 families who were asked to give up their homes.

``There is always the thorn before the rose,'' said the distinguished statesman, who died in 1995. ``You've got to make some sacrifices, but you will be taking part in greatness.''

The 13,500-acre site was chosen because of its access to water - essential for moving large rocket stages, components and propellants. The area was sparsely populated, and the site provided the test facility with an acoustical buffer zone of more than 125,000 acres.

At the outset, the center, first called Mississippi Test Operations and named for Stennis in 1988, tested all first and second stages of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo and Skylab programs. The first Saturn test took place in 1966.

In the early 1970s, the center's role in propulsion testing shifted to America's next step in space travel - the Space Shuttle. Its mission for the past 25 years has been testing the engines that power the shuttle during its 81/2-minute flight into orbit.

Stennis' unique test stands are used not only by NASA but by commercial customers such as Boeing, whose Rocketdyne division built many of the space program's rocket engines.

Boeing also leases space and uses NASA facilities to build and test rocket engines used in commercial endeavors.

``I'm a contractor to NASA on some programs, and they're a contractor to us on others,'' said Dave Geiger, Boeing's site director.

Another aspect of NASA's mission is conducting a broad range of remote sensing application projects. Remote sensing involves looking at the Earth with sensors mounted on airplanes and satellites.

The images are used for such things as mapping, flood plain management, environmental monitoring and even helping researchers in Oregon follow the 200-year-old trail of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

NASA is working with the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles, Ore., and noted Lewis and Clark archaeologist Ken Karsmizki, a curator at the center.

``Conducting archaeology from space is an exciting concept,'' Karsmizki said. ``Our efforts to uncover Lewis and Clark outposts are enhanced using this technology.''

Remote sensing is an emerging, multibillion-dollar industry that gives NASA a reliable commercial source for scientific data.

Stennis remains involved in government and commercial rocket engine programs, and in 2003 is scheduled to develop and test for NASA an airbreathing rocket designed to reduce the amount of on-board propellant.

The center also plays an important role during this time of conflict, marshaling the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command which provides weather, mapping and other data to every Navy ship, submarine and aircraft in the world.

See also: http://www.ssc.nasa.gov/