Stennis Shuttle Engine Test - April 21, 2001 9:55pm CDT - Neato quotient of 9 out of 10.  This was the first time the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi held an evening test that was open to the public (most tests are closed).  It was opened as a celebration for the 20th anniversary of the space shuttle program.  Less than 5,000 were expected, over 10,000 showed up.  Who knows how many just simply gave up because of the traffic?  The test was for a Pratt & Whitney main shuttle engine and included gimbal tests.  The test was spectacular and ran for about 520 seconds, which is the amount of time the main engines would fire taking a shuttle to orbit.  One big difference between this and a shuttle launch is that you are watching the 400,000 ft/lbs (yes, NASA still uses the English system; as an exercise, calculate the speed of light in furlongs/fortnight) being delivered on a continuous basis instead of seeing it go off into orbit.

These are just a couple of shots of the test.  All pictures were taken with a handheld Nikon FG using Fuji Superia ISO 800 print film.  Lenses were a Nikon Zoom 75-150mm f3.5 and a Nikon 50mm f1.8.  Actual f/stops and exposure times varied from shot to shot.