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Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Conducts Final Planned Test on Historic Space Shuttle Main Engine

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

July 29, 2009

thomas

CANOGA PARK, Calif., July 29 /PRNewswire/ — Capping a legacy that spans 34 years, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne completed the final planned test on a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) today at the John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Mississippi. The successful hot-fire test was the 2,730th for the SSME, the world’s only reusable liquid hydrogen engine designed for human space flight. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

“Because of the extensive testing done at SSC, the SSME is the most reliable and best understood rocket engine ever built,” said Jim Paulsen, SSME program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. “The testing conducted at SSC has been critical to the SSME’s safety record and the evolution of improvements to the engine. We’re all proud to be part of this critical effort in support of human space flight.”

The first SSME hot-fire test was conducted on May 19, 1975, leading to the first space shuttle launch on April 12, 1981. The last shuttle mission is slated for late 2010. The SSME is unique because it provides thrust during the boost and upper-stage ascent of a space shuttle, safely sending astronauts into space to assemble the International Space Station, conduct microgravity scientific experiments, deploy large spacecrafts such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and retrieve and return large payloads to Earth. The SSME is one of the most complex machines ever built. Three engines generate 1.5 million pounds of thrust – an energy output equivalent to 13 Hoover Dams.

Stennis Space Center has a long history in testing engines for human space flight. The site, originally named Mississippi Test Operations, tested the original Saturn V F-1 and J-2 rocket engines that launched Americans to the moon 40 years ago. The historic SSC test stands accumulated 2,344 SSME tests with an additional 386 tests conducted at sites in California and Alabama. Overall, the SSME program has accrued 2,730 engine hot-fires on ground test stands and 417 engine hot-fires on space shuttles for a combined 3,147 total starts and a total operational duration in excess of one million seconds.

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