Editing Marshall Space Flight Center (section)

====Fabrication and test facilities====
Wernher von Braun believed that the personnel designing the space vehicles should have direct, hands-on participation in the building and testing of the hardware. For this, MSFC had facilities where prototypes of every type of Saturn vehicle were fabricated. Large, special-purpose computers were used in the checkout procedures. Static test stands had been constructed at ABMA for the Redstone and Jupiter rockets. In 1961, the Jupiter stand was modified to test Saturn 1 and 1B stages. A number of other test stands followed, the largest being the [[Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand]] completed in 1964. At {{cvt|475|ft|m}} in height, the entire Saturn V could be accommodated. Also completed in 1964, the S1C Static Test Stand was for live firing of the five F-1 engines of the first stage. Delivering a total of 7.5-million-pounds thrust, the tests produced earthquake-like rumbles throughout the Huntsville area and could be heard as far as {{cvt|100|mi|km}} away.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

As the Saturn activities progressed, external facilities and factories were needed. In 1961, The Michoud Rocket Factory near New Orleans, Louisiana, was selected as the Saturn V rocket manufacturing site. A {{cvt|13,500|acre|km2}} isolated area in [[Hancock County, Mississippi]] was selected to conduct Saturn tests. Known as the Mississippi Test Facility (later renamed the [[John C. Stennis Space Center]]), this was primarily to test the vehicles built at the [[Michoud Assembly Facility|rocket factory]].{{citation_needed|date=July 2019}}