 The Advanced Solid Rocket Motor Program is essential to the continued launch of the space shuttle into the year 2000 and beyond. Use of the redesigned motors in the shuttle program in the mid-1990s will greatly improve flight safety, reliability and performance. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi has been selected as the new site for testing of the rocket motors. The test facility and associated easement area cover over 139,000 acres. The proposed test area for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor is located in the eastern half of the Fee area, north of the Access Canal and east of the existing test stands used for the testing of the space shuttle's main engines. The new ASRM test stand will be at least six miles from the nearest community. Testing of the new motors is scheduled to begin in late 1992. Eight motor tests are planned for the first two years, followed by two tests per year thereafter. Each test will last about two minutes. NASA has a considerable database of experience in the testing and launching of solid rocket motors. Likewise, NASA also has access to the experience of the Department of Defense. Since 1964, NASA has launched 143 vehicles using solid propellants. Included in the number are 32 space shuttle flights since 1981 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In all these years, NASA has seen no negative environmental impact of the critical Florida ecological system or wildlife habitat. A habitat which includes the manatee, bald eagle, and approximately 50 other threatened and endangered species. Likewise, NASA has accomplished 22 firings of the space shuttle's solid rocket motors at a site in Utah. The test site is just four miles from farmlands where crops are grown and cattle graze. NASA has extensively monitored many tests with ground instrumentation and aircraft measurements. The combustion byproducts ride the thermoplume up to a 20,000-foot altitude, then dissipate over a very large area. This experience, coupled with advanced field-certified computer modeling efforts, provides NASA with the confidence to test at Stennis Space Center. The Stennis Space Center was constructed with an adequate buffer zone to ensure proper acoustical protection relating to test firing. The ASRM test stand location was chosen to minimize noise to the surrounding communities. Testing will only be done under proper weather conditions to minimize sound effects related to testing. A noise monitoring program will also be established to verify actual levels of noise resulting from test firing. Noise levels will be below those experienced during the earlier Saturn Stage testing done at Stennis Space Center in the Apollo program. Public announcements will be made prior to all tests. A portion of the Stennis Space Center area where the ASRM test stand will be built is defined as a wetlands and therefore requires a wetlands permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. As required by law, this area will be replaced by creating wetlands in another area of Stennis Space Center. In order for construction to start at the test site, the Corps of Engineers must approve NASA's replacement wetlands plan and issue a permit. In addition to the wetlands permit, an air permit must also be issued to NASA before construction of the test stand can occur. Dr. Becky McKaleb, Environmental Officer at Stennis Space Center, has been involved in the Environmental Impact Studies and Permits associated with the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor Program. Information on the project was released in the Environmental Impact Statement as well as in public meetings with adjacent communities. A typical test scenario as it will occur at Stennis Space Center is explained by Dr. McKaleb. Advanced Solid Rocket Motors will be tested at Stennis Space Center using a man-made deflector to protect the soils and mechanically turn the exhaust upward. The exhaust consisting of primarily 127 tons of hydrogen chloride, 212 tons of aluminum oxide and water vapor will be released in 135 seconds and rapidly rise above the mixing layer, spanning altitudes of 1 to 3 miles or more above the ground. The motor burn rate characteristics produce an exhaust 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit with initial velocities 8 times the speed of sound, assuring dispersion at high altitudes, unlike the exhaust from industrial smokestacks. NASA will assure dispersion of the motor exhaust using both on-site and off-site modern meteorological monitoring techniques to determine atmospheric conditions. Fireings will only be conducted when wind conditions and atmospheric stability fully comply with permit restrictions established by the Mississippi Bureau of Pollution Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Permanent restrictions will be developed through comprehensive computer analyses, consideration of worker and public health, and protection and maintenance of the quality of our wildlife, soils, plants, and water resources.