| Michoud Assembly Facility | |
|---|---|
 Top to bottom, left to right: Aerial view of MAF in January 2020, the factory floor,Artemis 1 liquid oxygen tank in the South Vertical Assembly Building, and the entrance to the lobby and administration offices. | |
  Location in Louisiana Show map of Louisiana Michoud Assembly Facility (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
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| Built | 1940 |
| Location | New Orleans East |
| Coordinates | 30°01′30″N89°54′54″W / 30.025000°N 89.915000°W /30.025000; -89.915000 |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Products | Rockets stages and parts |
| Employees | 4,200 |
| Architect | Andrew Higgins[1] |
| Buildings | 4 |
| Area | 832 acres (337 ha) |
| Owner | NASA |
| Website | nasa |
TheMichoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an 832-acre (337-hectare) industrial complex for the manufacture andstructural assembly of aerospace vehicles and components. It is owned byNASA and located inNew Orleans East, a section ofNew Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Organizationally it is part of NASA'sMarshall Space Flight Center, and is currently a multi-tenant complex[2] to allow commercial and government contractors, as well as government agencies, to use the site.
MAF is one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world with 43environmentally controlled acres—174,000 m2 (1,870,000 sq ft)—under one roof, and it employs more than 4,200 people.[3] From September 1961 to the end of the Apollo program in December 1972 the site was utilized byChrysler Corporation to build the first stages of theSaturn I and Saturn IB, later joined byBoeing Corporation to build the first stage of theSaturn V rockets.[4] From September 5, 1973, to September 20, 2010, the factory was used for the construction of theSpace Shuttle'sexternal fuel tanks byMartin Marietta Corporation.[5]
The facility was originally constructed in 1940 at the village ofMichoud, Louisiana, by the Higgins-Tucker division ofHiggins Industries under the direction ofAndrew Jackson Higgins. Construction was on behalf of the United States government for the war production duringWorld War II of plywoodC-76 cargo planes and theHiggins Boatlanding craft. The project cost $180 million ($2.8 billion in 2018).[6] Production of the C-76 never commenced and instead produced twoCurtiss C-46 Commando in 1943 and remaining order cancelled in 1944. The facility was referred to asMichoud (Factory) Airfield in the 1940s and briefly as a National Guard field in 1949, but became inactive by 1952.[7]
During theKorean War it made engines forSherman andPatton tanks, and boasted a 1,700-metre (5,500 ft) paved runway. It came under the management of NASA in 1961, and was used for the construction of theS-IC first stage of theSaturn V rockets and theS-IB first stage of theSaturn IB rockets built byChrysler Corporation. It is home to the first stage of the last-constructed Saturn V, SA-515, built by TheBoeing Company. The factory's ceiling height limitation of 12 meters ruled out the construction of the biggerSaturn C-8 direct-ascent vehicle there, and therefore was one of the major reasons why the smaller C-5 (later renamed Saturn V) was chosen instead of the originally planned C-8 Moon vehicle. The runway was slowly transformed into Saturn Boulevard in the 1960s with the middle becoming a heliport and decommissioned by the 1970s.[7]
The majority of the NASA factory's history was focused on construction and production of NASA'sSpace Shuttle external tank (ET). Beginning with the rollout of ET-1 on June 29, 1979, which flew onSTS-1, 136 tanks were produced throughout the Space Shuttle program, ending with the flight-ready tank ET-122, which flew onSTS-134, rolled out on September 20, 2010.[8] A single tank produced at the facility, ET-94, was not used in spaceflight and remained at Michoud as atest article.[5][9]
Modular parts for theInternational Space Station werefabricated at the facility in the mid-1990s until 2010.[10]
The factory is now the location for theSpace Launch System (SLS)'s core andfuture second stage construction by Boeing.[11][12][13] SLS is the most powerful rocket in the history of spaceflight. It carries theOrion spacecraft, whose crew module is also being built at Michoud, but byLockheed Martin.[14][15][16][17][18] It has 50% more volume than the Apollo command capsule and will carry four to six astronauts.[19] The first launch occurred on November 16, 2022.[20][21] In 2012, a tenant workshop on-site was named the Chris A. Hadfield Rocket Factory (CAHRF) in homage to the Canadian NASA astronaut.[22]
On May 24, 1988,TACA Flight 110 operated with aBoeing 737-300 jetliner made a successful emergency landing on a grassylevee in the Michoud grounds after power was lost in both engines during a severe thunderstorm. The aircraft was towed into the Michoud facility, where its engines were replaced. On 6 June, it took off, with a crew of two and minimal fuel, using the former runway at Michoud,[23] which had been reused as a road, Saturn Boulevard.[24] It was flown the short distance to New Orleans International Airport, where it was fully repaired.[23]
The facility did not experience significant flooding duringHurricane Katrina due to a naturalridge that runs along its northwestern boundary, thelevee that makes up the southern and eastern boundaries, and the work of the pump operators who stayed to protect the facility during the storm. Several buildings sustained wind and rainwater damage. All shifts were initially canceled up to September 26, 2005, potentially setting back future Shuttle flights. All the buildings and the shuttle hardware within survived the hurricane without grave damage, but the roof of the main manufacturing building was breached and debris damaged ET-122 stored inside; that tank was refurbished and later flew on the final flight ofSpace ShuttleEndeavour,STS-134. Thirty-eight NASA and Lockheed Martin employees stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina to operate the pumping systems, knowing that if not activated and sustained, the facility would have been destroyed. The workers pumped more than one billion gallons (3,800,000 m3) of water out of the facility and probably were the reason that the rocket factory suffered very little damage. These employees were each awarded theNASA Exceptional Bravery Medal, NASA's highest bravery award.[25]
On September 16, 2005NASA announced that the repairs were progressing faster than anticipated,[26] and so they would continue to use Michoud for external tank work. On October 3, 2005, the facility officially reopened for essential personnel, though some key personnel had returned earlier. On October 31, 2005, the facility reopened to all personnel.
On February 7, 2017, anEF3 tornado carved a path throughOrleans Parish, in which the factory is located. Two major buildings including the main manufacturing building were damaged, with multiple broken windows. Five people were injured, and resulting repairs and other factors contributed to the delay of thefirst SLS launch until late 2022.[27][28][29]
The facility consists of various buildings in one complex:
The shipping port is located 600 meters southwest of the main manufacturing building. Transporting vehicles carrying manufactured SLS components move down Saturn Blvd, past large open fields, to the pier - where the Pegasus Barge is docked. This is where the components are shipped to either their final destination -Kennedy Space Center, or rarely back to the mainMarshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, or theJohn C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing.
The Michoud Assembly Facility also houses other organizations such as theNational Finance Center operated by theUnited States Department of Agriculture, theUnited States Coast Guard, andGE.[37][38]
The factory complex is open to the public (though through pre-booking in advance). Visitors must sign in at main reception and clear security.[39]
NASA planned to use the rocket factory to build the structure for several components of the cancelledConstellation program, including theOrion spacecraft, theAres IUpper Stage, and theAres V Core Stage. Under the Obama administration, the Constellation Program was cancelled in 2010,[40] but was replaced with SLS a year later to continue space exploration efforts.
NASA has an agreement in place to rent out a portion of the facility to Big Easy Studios, a New Orleans film studio.[41] This deal has been criticized by competing studios as violating NASA's rule that any deal with an outside entity must serve the agency's mission and must not compete with the private sector. NASA officials defend the agreement, stating that this helps to offset the cost of unused space on the facility and that their pricing is vetted by state and local economic development agencies to ensure it is not competing with the private market.[42] Portions ofEnder's Game,[43]G.I. Joe: Retaliation,[44] andDawn of the Planet of the Apes[citation needed] were filmed at the factory.
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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