KSC-2010-3098

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne engine technicians prepare to install a high pressure oxidizer turbo pump on space shuttle main engine no. 2062. The engine, or SSME, is the last one scheduled to be built at Kennedy before the end of the Space Shuttle Program. From left are Dan Bode, Teryon Jones, and Ryan Mahony. Quality inspector Barry Martin is standing beside the engine, just out of view. Three main engines are clustered at the aft end of the shuttle and have a combined thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds. Even though an SSME weighs one-seventh as much as a locomotive engine, its high-pressure fuel pump alone delivers as much horsepower as 28 locomotives. Each engine operates during the entire eight-and-a-half minute climb to orbit. Post-flight inspections and maintenance of each engine also are conducted in the SSME Processing Facility between shuttle missions. Photo credit: NASA_Amanda Diller