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This Week in NASA History: Full-Duration Captive Rocket Firing at Mississippi Test Facility – Feb. 10, 1968

This week in 1968, the Mississippi Test Facility successfully completed the first full-duration static test firing of 1968.
This week in 1968, the Mississippi Test Facility — today’s NASA Stennis Space Center — successfully completed the first full-duration static test firing of 1968.

This week in 1968, the Mississippi Test Facility — today’s NASA Stennis Space Center — successfully completed the first full-duration static test firing of 1968. Engineers and technicians static-fired the fourth flight version of the Saturn V second stage, S-II-4, for six minutes. The S-II-4 was used on the Apollo 9 Saturn V launch vehicle. Developed by the Space Division of North American Aviation under the direction of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the S-II stage employed five J-2 engines, each capable of producing 225,000 pounds of thrust. Here, an S-II stage is hoisted into the A2 test stand. Now through December 2022, NASA will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program that landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972, and the first U.S. crewed mission — Apollo 8 — that circumnavigated the Moon in December 1968. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)