The objects in the photo above are Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs), the reusable, steerable rocket motors that were formerly fitted in threes to the back end of each shuttle orbiter (the spaceworthy ones, at least; poor old Enterprise never had the honor of sporting real engines). They’ve now all been removed from the surviving space-flown orbiters — the shuttles will be fitted with dummy engines when they go on museum display next year — and in this image, we see them gathered together in the Kennedy Space Center Engine Shop, all 15 of them, for the first and probably last time.

I’ve read that these engines are some of the most complicated, most powerful machines ever designed; three of them working together at launch developed some 37 million horsepower, the equivalent energy output of 13 Hoover Dams. Simply amazing.

I don’t much like the thought of them being permanently separated from their shuttles. I don’t like the thought of a Duesenberg sitting in a museum with nothing under its hood, either; it’s far more appealing, for me, to think of museum pieces as complete. Blame my sentimental, romantic nature. But I understand NASA’s current plan is to repurpose them for some future heavy-lift vehicle, so I suppose that’s a better fate for them than being taxidermied anyhow.

I don’t know how much longer they’ll be at Kennedy; they’re ultimately headed for a storage facility in Mississippi to await whatever the future holds…

Photo courtesy of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Facebook page.