PRCC Aviation Students

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Jeff Hansell, right, explains functions of a space shuttle main engine to Pearl River Community College Aviation Maintenance Technology Program students. Christopher Bryon, left, of Bay St. Louis, Ret Tolar of Kiln, Dan Holston of Baxterville and Billy Zugg of Long Beach took a recent tour of the SSME Processing Facility and the E-1 Test Complex at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. The students attend class adjacent to the Stennis International Airport tarmac in Kiln, where they get hands-on experience. PRCC's program prepares students to be responsible for the inspection, repair and maintenance of technologically advanced aircraft. A contractor to NASA, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, Calif., manufactures the space shuttle main engine and its high-pressure turbo pumps. SSC was established in the 1960s to test the huge engines for the Saturn V moon rockets. Now 40 years later, the center tests every main engine for the space shuttle, and is America's largest rocket engine test complex. SSC will soon begin testing the rocket engines that will power spacecraft carrying Americans back to the moon and on to Mars.