In 1961, NASA selected a 13,500 acre spot bordering the Pearl River in Hancock County for its new rocket testing facility. The isolated location along navigable waters would permit barges to transport large rocket motors between the Michoud Assembly plant in New Orleans and the Kennedy Space Center launch site in Florida. NASA renamed the Mississippi Test Facility as the John C. Stennis Space Center in 1988 in honor of space program advocate U.S. Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi.

The Stennis Center provides a major economic boost to Mississippi businesses and nearby communities. The 1971 letter on view from Governor John Bell Williams emphasizes the fear that NASA would abandon the facility, moving the development of the space shuttle program to the western states. Today, both private and public entities at the local, national, and international levels utilize the testing capabilities of the Stennis Center in addition to NASA.

In the early 1990s, U.S. Representative Jamie L. Whitten, the powerful chair of the Appropriations Committee, supported an advanced solid rocket system to replace the flawed boosters that caused the Challenger shuttle to explode in 1983. NASA had since fixed the problems and wished to replace solid fuel with an alternative system, but the site for the new proposed Advanced Rocket facility was within the borders of Whitten’s congressional district. On view is a letter from President George H.W. Bush containing greetings for the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Yellow Creek facility. In 1996 (one year after Whitten retired from office), Congress ceased funding the site after having spent $1.5 billion.