NASA’s Stennis Space Center has partnered with companies on propulsion test projects in support of the commercialization of space for more than 20 years.
In the last half of 2021, however, the NASA site and startup company Firehawk Aerospace participated in a partnership arrangement that provides a new model for future collaborations.
In the typical “service-based” partnership model, Stennis conducts a test campaign for, or in conjunction with, a partner company. With the new approach, Firehawk Aerospace led and managed its own test project at the NASA center located near Bay St. Louis.
Stennis provided facilities, a dedicated test area and support resources for the company to test its Armstrong 1K rocket engine, using a patented, 3D-printed hybrid fuel and a unique mobile test platform. The company also was able to draw on the experience and expertise of the Stennis propulsion team during the project.
The partnership with Firehawk Aerospace provided Stennis a perfect opportunity to demonstrate just how such a “partner-managed facility” arrangement could work, said Kevin Power, NASA Stennis chief of the Propulsion Test Project Management Office.
Stennis is America’s largest rocket propulsion test site and is equipped to support a range of government and commercial propulsion test projects, from engine components to full-scale rocket stages.
Since it began operation in the 1960s, Stennis has helped power the nation’s space exploration efforts. It currently is testing rocket stages and engines for NASA’s new Space Launch System that will launch Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for eventual journeys to Mars.
