Volume 16 Issue 5 www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis May 2020 Enjoy virtual tour of Stennis Space Center It is possible to tour Stennis Space Center even during times of restricted activity. A newly posted virtual tour provides a close look at the nation’s largest rocket propulsion test site, taking viewers to the facilities that tested the rocket stages that carried humans to the Moon in the 1960 and 1970s, as well as all of the engines that powered 135 space shuttle missions from 1981 to 2011. To take the “tour,” visit here. Page 2 LAGNIAPPE May 2020 was lying in my old hammock – strung between Regardless, the thought is true. Most of us spend so two cypress trees at the edge of the bayou – after much time commuting, rushing, hurrying and filling Ifinishing up some telework tasks when the biggest our hours with busyness that we often end a day won- bullfrog I had seen in a while splashed into the water dering where it went. Before we know it, days become beside me, kerplopping so loud that I almost flipped weeks becomes months become ... you get the idea. myself right down on the ground. It seems COVID-19 has made many folks change An old Japanese haiku came to mind – “An old silent that pattern a bit, even as they telework and continue pond. / Into the pond a frog jumps. / Splash! Silence to perform necessary work. It is interesting to hear again.” I wondered if maybe that Japanese poet had people talk about how they are spending their time been lying in his own hammock out by his koi pond these days, the little things they are rediscovering, only when he came up with those lines. Ark! to discover they never really were little things after all. In school, I had wondered how those three lines As NASA, Stennis and life-in-general moves toward could be considered poetry. They were so ordinary – some form of new and normal routine, it will be inter- and about something so ordinary. However, with this esting to see how many people make room to continue COVID-19 situation, the meaning seems a bit clearer. some of those “little things.” Maybe they were calling us to do what many of us are doing right now – slowing down a little, staying more I have my own list of things I do not want to lose at home, noticing more of the life around us. again, like enjoying more family meals, reading more to my own grandgators and taking quiet walks more “Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look often. I have even tried to take up a new hobby – writ- around once in a while, you could miss it,” Papagator ing poetry. Check out this haiku – “The sun rose today used to tell me. Or was it Ferris Bueller? Maybe Ferris / Just like it did yesterday / And the day before.” was quoting Papagator in his movie. Ark! Imagine – Gator is a poet. Ark! Lagniappe is published monthly by the Office of Communications at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center. Access monthly copies at: www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/news/publications/index.html Contact info – (phone) 228-688-3749; (email) [email protected]; (mail) NASA OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS, Attn: LAGNIAPPE, Mail code IA00, Building 1100 Room 304, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 Subscribe at: https://lists.nasa.gov/mailman/listinfo/stennis-space-center-lagniappe Managing Editor – Valerie Buckingham Editor – Lacy Thompson Staff Photographer – Danny Nowlin Page 3 LAGNIAPPE May 2020 NASA’s MOON to MARS MISSION NASA takes preliminary steps to resume core stage activity ne day in the sooner-rather-than-later future, people “The test facility has been in standby mode, so we al- of the SLS core stage and the Orion capsule,” said across the nation will rearrange daily schedules to lotted two days to reestablish some facility support of Michoud Director Robert Champion. GO... O witness a long-anticipated event – the maiden launch mechanical and electrical systems that will also assist of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. the vehicle contractors in performing their opera- According to Julie Bassler, SLS stages project manager tions,” said Barry Robinson, project manager for the responsible for the core stage work at Stennis, Mi- A pair of solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines will fire B-2 Test Stand SLS core stage Green Run testing at choud and Marshall, Marshall also is resuming critical at a south Florida launchpad to generate more than 8 million Stennis. flight software and hardware testing. GO... pounds of thrust, lifting the 321-foot SLS rocket into the sky on its way to the Moon and back. Returning workers were trained on general safety pro- cedures, personal protective equipment requirements, The launch will herald the beginning of a new great era of and self-monitoring. Site personnel also installed signs GO! space exploration, one set on establishing a sustainable presence and markings to indicate where employees should on the Moon and placing human footprints on Mars. stand and sit during upcoming activities. In no small part, success of the new era rests on hard work “We want to make sure employees are armed with the provided by Stennis Space Center, which is testing the rocket appropriate information to be effective on the job and engines and SLS core stage that will power the new rocket to return safely to their families,” Robinson said. unprecedented destinations. All sites are closely following CDC guidance to safely Lagniappe is featuring a series of articles under the “Go ... Go operate and protect the health and welfare of all ... Go!” heading that detail aspects of NASA’s next step into employees. Michoud plans to transition to Stage 3 and deep space and Stennis’ role in making such missions possible. operate in that stage for 30 days, in coordination with The following represents the latest installment. local government plans. Marshall remains at Stage 4. Stennis plans for 30 days of limited crew activ- NASA resumed Green Run testing activities on the ity on site in anticipation of the center’s transition first flight stage of its Space Launch System (SLS) from Stage 4 to Stage 3. Once that transition occurs, rocket throughout the week of May 11, with the re- increases to on-site work will continue slowly and turn of limited crews to perform work at the agency’s methodically. The focus then will shift to preparing Stennis Space Center. for the avionics power-up test – the next in a series of core stage Green Run testing milestones. According to “This is an important step toward resuming the criti- Robinson, it’s too early to calculate a precise schedule cal work to support NASA’s Artemis program that for the various test milestones. will land the first woman and the next man on the south pole of the Moon by 2024,” Stennis Center Di- “Like so many others, in so many places, we’re operat- rector Rick Gilbrech said. “Though Stennis remains in ing under a new normal. We’re working now to deter- Stage 4 of NASA’s COVID-19 Response Framework, mine exactly what that looks like,” he explained. “The we assessed state and local conditions and worked Stennis Space Center employees Cheley Carpenter (l) and Shelton virus, and our knowledge of safety as it relates to the with agency leadership to develop a plan to safely and Dunn, both with Syncom Space Services, work at the B-2 Test Stand virus, will dictate any changes we consider and imple- after limited activities resumed at the facility. methodically increase critical on-site work toward the Click image to enlarge ment. We will adjust tasks based on the most current launch of the next great era of space exploration.” information and guidance.” Reestablishing, or “waking up,” the Stennis B-2 Test Stennis moved to Stage 4 on March 20, with only Stand systems in the days ahead included restoring fa- Green Run represents the first top-to-bottom inte- personnel needed to perform mission essential activi- cility power and controls, as well as ensuring pressur- grated test of all flight core stage systems prior to its ties related to the safety and security of the center ized gas systems are at proper levels for SLS operators maiden Artemis I flight. All testing will be conducted allowed on site. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to proceed with testing activities. on the B-2 Test Stand in the coming months and will in Huntsville, Alabama, and its Michoud Assembly culminate with an eight-minute, full-duration hot fire Facility in New Orleans, which are building SLS, also “Michoud has been cleaning and preparing the rocket of the core stage with its four RS-25 engines, as dur- are in Stage 4. manufacturing facility for critical production restart ing an actual launch. Page 4 LAGNIAPPE May 2020 NASA’s MOON to MARS MISSION Teams return to B-2 Test Stand to resume limited Space Launch System core stage activity Limited teams returned to Stennis Space Center the week of May 11 to resume some core stage activities at the B-2 Test Stand. Team members included contractor employees, Boeing employees (left photo); Scott Jensen (bottom left photo, l) and Tristan Mooney; and B-2 Test Stand Director Ryan Roberts (right photo). Stennis has been at a COVID-19 Stage 4 response level, which restricted access and work performed at the site. Numerous safety precautions have been taken to protect the safety and health of returning employees.