Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                                            
July 25, 1991 
(Phone:  202/453-1142)

Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone:  205/544-6540)


RELEASE:  91-118

SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE DAMAGED IN GROUND TEST


     A developmental Space Shuttle main engine sustained 
extensive internal damage while it was undergoing ground testing 
on Wednesday at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, 
Miss. 

     The test failure occurred at approximately 4 seconds after 
engine start when engine sensors detected abnormal operating 
conditions.  Ground-control systems terminated the test 
immediately and there was no apparent damage to the test stand on 
which the engine was mounted.

     The exact nature and extent of damage to the engine, as well 
as the cause of the incident, are being investigated.  However, 
from initial external observations, the damage appears to be 
largely internal to the engine.  A team of engineers with NASA 
and the prime contractor for the main engine, Rocketdyne Division 
of Rockwell International, have begun gathering all pertinent 
test data for analysis.

     The engine which was being tested is a development engine, 
and its configuration is different from engines used in the 
Shuttle flight program.

     "Failures such as this do occur from time to time in the 
aggressive ground-test program that we've always maintained, and 
especially when we're testing advanced-design components.  
However, it has been over two years since we've had such an 
incident and during that time, we've accumulated over 100,000 
seconds of engine operation, with 257 engine starts," said Jerry 
Smelser, manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Projects Office 
at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.  "The 
engine, unit number 0215, had been tested extensively in the 
past.  It had been run 15 times prior to the aborted test, with 
an accumulated run time of 5,255 seconds, or approximately 87.6 
minutes."

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