Way Station to Space: A History of the John C. Stennis Space Center (review)

The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an anomaly within the space agency. Whereas other NASA field centers acquired their current status prior to 1970, Stennis did not acquire field center status until 1988. What became known as the SSC began during the Apollo era as the Mississippi Test Facility, built in the remote Gulf Coast swamps to test Apollo’s massive engines. Its long journey from an isolated test facility to a full-fledged member of the NASA family makes an interesting story, well told by longtime Stennis public affairs officer Mack Herring.

Herring’s task is familiar to those acquainted with NASA’s historical publications: to narrate the “official” history of a NASA field center. As one of SSC’s original employees, Herring lived through most of the events discussed in his book, and he brings an immediacy to the work that makes it easier to read than some of NASA’s other center histories. The book shares the strengths and weaknesses of the genre, and also of the “insider story.” While very strong in presentation of the local impact of the center, the details of various events, and the personalities of SSC’s leaders, it sometimes smacks of “boosterism,” overstates the importance of ceremonial events, and is not as strong in setting the institutional and national context.

I found the history of Stennis to be quite interesting, both because of Herring’s entertaining style and because of the twists and turns of the institution’s history. Perhaps the strongest point of Herring’s narrative is his description of the personalities of SSC’s leaders, the late Senator Stennis, and their sometimes Machiavellian strategies to promote the facility, usually over the objections of NASA executive management. Beginning in 1966, only five years after NASA selected the site for engine testing, Mississippi Test Facility manager Jackson Balch began to orchestrate an effort to keep the facility alive after Apollo. Bypassing his own management, Balch secretly met with Stennis, and the two of them began an extensive lobbying campaign to bring other tasks and organizations to the remote site. The ensuing battles between Balch, Stennis, and NASA managers complemented the successful wooing of army, navy, and other organizations to the site, along with political arm-twisting to ensure the facility’s role on the shuttle program. Through these contingent political fights and entrepreneurial efforts, the facility eventually became a leader in remote-sensing technologies and environmental monitoring, along with propulsion testing. Stories such as these make Way Station to Space an excellent case study in institutional infighting and pork-barrel politics.

Historians of technology won’t find many details about the technologies of propulsion testing in this book. However, they will find a rich case study in institutional politics, the interactions of local interests with national goals, and the local economic and cultural impact of scientific and technical institutions. The mix of high-tech military and civilian scientists and engineers with rural Mississippi makes for an interesting story in and of itself. While some might dismiss the book as simply another self-promoting NASA history, Herring was able and willing to show the lumps and warts of his institution and its history, while being proud of its accomplishments nonetheless. I found the book entertaining and informative and believe that it is a credit to NASA’s historical efforts.