NASA

The Stennis Space Center is located right on the Louisiana/Mississippi border. When we go by we always say, "Hey, we gotta check that out sometime!" so we finally did. It was a lovely bus tour to get to the visitor's center and our bus driver pointed out all kinds of cool rocket booster testing platforms and other cool stuff. It's all a jumble now, but I did get some interesting pictures. Stennis is where they test the solid rocket boosters. Sometimes they test one, sometimes up to five at a time. When it's five they have to clear the area for miles around. They own some land, and lease some, and the owners can come out and hunt on it in season. Evidently there are a lot of "sugar bears" and deer on the property. They aren't afraid of the tour buses and we saw a lot of deer and rabbits, the usual squirrels, and were blessed not to see or smell too many skunks.
In the space center there is a display where they show you the percentage of the Federal Budget that goes to all space exploration, testing etc. to NASA. I will try to post it too. It's hard for us people who think in hundreds and thousands to actually wrap our minds around millions, billions and trillions.