HOME REGION PRIDE CONNECTED WITH DISCOVERY'S LAUNCH TOMORROW

Of course, we all hope and pray for a successful launch and mission as America returns to manned space work tomorrow as the Space Shuttle Discovery delivers supplies to the International Space Station.

While all the attention is focused on the Kennedy Space Centre here in Florida, where the mission will be launched from, and the Johnson Space Centre in suburban Houston where the mission will be managed from, there is one little-known facility that has played a major role in this and many previous space missions, both manned and unmanned.

In Hancock County, Mississippi just off Interstate 10, roughly midway between Biloxi and New Orleans, is the John C. Stennis Space Centre. The fairly rural setting is home to NASA's primary center for testing rocket engines, including those used on the shuttle fleet. During the two-plus year break after the tragedy of Columbia, engineers at SSC tested the shuttle's three main engines, along with the nozzles and control panels that will power Discovery in it's return to space.

In it's 30 year history of testing more than 3,300 engines --- including 165 tested there over the past two years --- there has never been an in-flight main engine failure.

My native hometown newspaper, the Hattiesburg American, looks at Stennis Space Centre's role in a story today.

Just can't help a little Mississippi pride occasionally!