When you're regularly testing rocket bits out in the middle of the desert, one thing you come to expect are a few surprises from Mother Nature. This spring, though, she blessed us with not just one surprise, but four...

The saga began when we discovered a small bird had built a nest and laid eggs on one of our engine test stands. With some help from local wildlife experts, we deduced that the bird in question was actually a house finch!

House finches are an extremely adorable species native to southwestern North America. They're also protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which meant that we couldn't move or disturb the nest without a federal permit.

Obviously, this also meant that we couldn’t hotfire on that specific test stand. So to keep the bird and its eggs safe while we continued work on other stands, our ingenious Mojave crew designed and built an impromptu sound barrier out of lumber and styrofoam.

That temporary structure kept the nest safe, quiet and cozy as work continued in other areas of our Mojave test site. After a few weeks, the eggs hatched, the chicks matured, and the birds flew the coop.

We’d like to give a huge shoutout and thanks to Kern County wildlife advisor Annie Raish for all of her helpful guidance and expertise! And kudos to our Mojave team for ensuring this short story had a happy ending.