Stennis Space Center Director Gene Goldman visits with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour during NASA Day at the Capitol activities on Feb. 19. During the visit, Goldman presented the governor with a model of the J-2X rocket engine currently in development. Stennis engineers did early component testing for the new engine.

Steam billows from an RS-68 rocket engine test at the B Test Stand at Stennis Space Center on June 2. The test was viewed by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (third from left) and his wife, Marsha, who spent the afternoon at the NASA rocket engine testing center. The governor was joined at the RS-68 test by (l to r) Charles Scales, NASA associate deputy administrator; Jeffrey Wright, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne site director at Stennis; Gene Goldman, Stennis director; and Jack Forsythe, NASA assistant administrator for the Office of Security and Program Protection.

Center Director Gene Goldman and special guests celebrate the opening of the site's new Emergency Operations Center on June 2. Participants included (l t r): Steven Cooper, deputy director of the National Weather Service Southern Region; Tom Luedtke, NASA associate administrator for institutions and management; Charles Scales, NASA associate deputy administrator; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; Gene Goldman, director of Stennis Space Center; Jack Forsythe, NASA assistant administrator for the Office of Security and Program Protection; Dr. Richard Williams, NASA chief health and medical officer; and Weldon Starks, president of Starks Contracting Company Inc. of Biloxi.

NASA officials and government leaders participated in a groundbreaking event for a new rocket engine test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. Pictured (left to right) are Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Doug Cooke, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne President Jim Maser, Stennis Space Center Director Richard Gilbrech, NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Scott Horowitz, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Sen. Thad Cochran, Sen. Trent Lott, Rep. Gene Taylor, SSC's Deputy Director Gene Goldman, and SSC's A-3 Project Manager Lonnie Dutreix. Stennis' A-3 Test Stand will provide altitude testing for NASA's developing J-2X engine. That engine will power the upper stages of NASA's Ares I and Ares V rockets. A-3 is the first large test stand to be built at SSC since the site's inception in the 1960s.