NASA begins moving shuttle main engines to Stennis for future use

space shuttle enginesView full sizeTechnicians oversee the installation of a Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne RS-25D engine into a transportation canister in the Engine Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The 15 engines used during the Space Shuttle Program will moved to Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi, where they will be stored for future use on NASA's new deep space heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. (NASA)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - NASA has begun moving its 15 space shuttle main engines from storage at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi. The RS-25D engines will be stored and tested there for eventual use in NASA's new Space Launch System.

The 15 engines will be moved one at a time by truck. That's a 700-mile journey and one that NASA made many times to move engines during the space shuttle program. Moving them out of Kennedy also frees up space in Florida that can be used by the commercial space companies the center is trying to attract.

"This enables the sharing of personnel, resources and practices across all engine projects, allows flexibility and responsiveness to the SLS program, and it is more affordable," said Johnny Heflin, RS-25D core stage engine lead in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.. "It also frees up the space, allowing Kennedy to move forward relative to commercial customers."

Marshall is leading the development of the SLS program, which features new heavy-lift boosters and the Orion capsule. NASA plans to launch the first, unmanned flight of the new system to fly around the moon in 2017.