NASA's Stennis Space Center in Stennis, Mississippi, unveiled an initiative today to chart the future of the nation's premier rocket engine testing facility. Stennis Director Gene Goldman announced plans for the center to test Aerojet AJ26 rocket engines for Orbital Sciences Corp. as part of a NASA partnership with the companies. The AJ26 testing is part of NASA's new direction for space exploration. Under NASA's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget, NASA will work closer with commercial interests to develop space travel capabilities.

The Aerojet AJ26 is a prime example of that new direction and of the immediate future of Stennis, which completed engine testing for remaining space shuttle flights last July. The AJ26 is the first new engine in years to be tested at Stennis and representative of the commercial work the facility now is pursuing. The center also provides RS-68 rocket engine testing for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Stennis operators have been modifying their E-1 Test Stand since last April in order to test the AJ26 engines. Work has included construction of a 27-foot-deep flame deflector trench. Orbital is working in partnership with NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportations Services (COTS) joint research and development project. Orbital is under contract with NASA through the Commercial Resupply Services program to provide eight cargo missions to the ISS through 2015. The AJ26 Aerojet engines will power Orbital's Taurus II space launch vehicle for the supply missions.