Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, speaks at an all-hands for employees following the State of NASA address, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, welcomes everyone to the State of NASA address, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, welcomes everyone to the State of NASA address, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, right, shakes hands with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine after introducing him at the State of NASA address, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, speak with members of the media following State of NASA address to discuss the fiscal year 2021 budget request, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, center, is seen next to the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with Lisa Bates, SLS Deputy Stages Manager at NASA, Mark Nappi, Boeing Green Run Test Manager, Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, Julie Bassler, SLS Stages Manager at NASA, and NASA astronaut Raja Chari, during a tour of the B-2 Test Stand, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Over the coming months, the first core stage of NASA’s SLS rocket will be undergoing a series of integrated Green Run tests prior to its maiden flight. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, center, is seen on a work platform between the four RS-25 engines of the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with Lisa Bates, SLS Deputy Stages Manager at NASA, Mark Nappi, Boeing Green Run Test Manager, Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, Julie Bassler, SLS Stages Manager at NASA, and NASA astronaut Raja Chari, during a tour of the B-2 Test Stand, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Over the coming months, the first core stage of NASA’s SLS rocket will be undergoing a series of integrated Green Run tests prior to its maiden flight. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, center, is seen on a work platform between the four RS-25 engines of the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with Lisa Bates, SLS Deputy Stages Manager at NASA, Mark Nappi, Boeing Green Run Test Manager, Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, Julie Bassler, SLS Stages Manager at NASA, and NASA astronaut Raja Chari, during a tour of the B-2 Test Stand, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Over the coming months, the first core stage of NASA’s SLS rocket will be undergoing a series of integrated Green Run tests prior to its maiden flight. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, center, is seen on a work platform between the four RS-25 engines of the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with Lisa Bates, SLS Deputy Stages Manager at NASA, Mark Nappi, Boeing Green Run Test Manager, Richard Gilbrech, Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, Julie Bassler, SLS Stages Manager at NASA, and NASA astronaut Raja Chari, during a tour of the B-2 Test Stand, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Over the coming months, the first core stage of NASA’s SLS rocket will be undergoing a series of integrated Green Run tests prior to its maiden flight. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Stennis Space Center Deputy Director Richard Gilbrech (center) presents commemorative plaques to STS-134 crew members Michael Fincke (l) and Gregory Chamitoff during their July 20 visit to the south Mississippi facility. During the visit, Fincke and Chamitoff spoke to Stennis employees about their STS-134 mission aboard shuttle Endeavour, the final flight to space for the NASA orbiter.

The A-1 Test Stand at NASA Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., was the focus of a ceremony held Thursday to transition the storied facility to a new program of work: testing the J-2X engines that will power the agency's next generation spacecraft, Ares I & V. Standing before the historic structure, with a plaque commemorating the change, are (from left) SSC Center Director Richard Gilbrech; NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Scott Horowitz; and NASA Space Operations Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Integration Michael Hawes. Ares vehicles are the crew and cargo launch vehicles being developed under NASA's Constellation Program.

Patrick Scheuermann (left), deputy director at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, and Richard Gilbrech, associate director, place a wreath in memory of the 17 astronauts lost in service of the space program since 1967. The wreath was placed during NASA's 2010 Day of Remembrance, observed each year in January. The annual observance memorializes the three astronauts lost in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in 1967, the seven astronauts lost in the Challenger tragedy in 1986 and the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia accident in 2003. During the Stennis observance, Scheuermann praised the fallen astronauts as 'brave space pioneers who gave their lives in the cause of exploration and discovery.'

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA officials including Bryan O'Connor, Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance (left), Richard Gilbrech, associate director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Robert Lightfoot director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana, and Michael Coats, Johnson Space Center director monitor for the launch countdown of space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission. The seven-member STS-131 crew will deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station's laboratories. The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior. STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the station and the 131st shuttle mission overall. For information on the STS-131 mission and crew, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_mission_pages_shuttle_shuttlemissions_sts131_index.html. Photo credit: NASA_Kim Shiflett

The astronauts of NASA's STS-116 space shuttle mission visited NASA Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi to share highlights of their 13-day mission and to thank SSC employees for the reliability of the space shuttle's main engines, which helped propel Space Shuttle Discovery into orbit during its Dec. 9, 2006, launch. Pictured (from left) are STS-116 crewmembers Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam, SSC Center Director, Richard Gilbrech, Mission Specialists Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick and Christer Fuglesang. During the mission, which began with the first evening launch since 2002, the astronauts installed the P5 spacer truss segment and rewired the International Space Station's power system.

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.

Rick Gilbrech, director of NASA's Stennis Space Center, speaks to invited guests ahead of a second hot fire test of the core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket in the B-2 Test Stand, Thursday, March 18, 2021, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The hot fire test is the final stage of the Green Run test series, a comprehensive assessment of the Space Launch System’s core stage prior to launching the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Photo Credit: (NASA/Robert Markowitz)