KSC-2010-3068

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, construction of the last space shuttle main engine, or SSME, scheduled to be built at Kennedy by Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne before the end of the Space Shuttle Program is under way in the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility. Three main engines are clustered at the aft end of the shuttle and have a combined thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds. Each engine utilizes liquid hydrogen for fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer and operates during the entire eight-and-a-half minute ride to orbit. Post-flight inspections and maintenance of each engine also are conducted in the SSME Processing Facility between shuttle missions. Photo credit: NASA_Jack Pfaller