The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an manufacturing complex owned by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

in New Orleans East, a district within

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama ( Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...

, and is currently a multi-tenant complex 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 43 environmentally controlled acres——under one roof, and it employs more than 4,200 people. From September 1961 to the end of the Apollo program in December 1972 the site was utilized by Chrysler Corporation to build the first stages of the Saturn I and Saturn IB, later joined by Boeing Corporation to build the first stage of the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 1 ...

rockets. From September 5, 1973, to September 20, 2010, the factory was used for the construction of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

's external fuel tanks by Martin Marietta Corporation. In 2012, the parts of the facility dedicated to rocket construction were renamed the Chris A. Hadfield Rocket Factory (CAHRF), after the factory's former employee and Canadian astronaut

Chris Hadfield Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, and musician. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also ser ...

History

The facility was originally constructed in 1940 at the village of

Michoud, Louisiana Michoud (pronounced or sometimes ) is an area in Eastern New Orleans, part of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana, located at latitude 30.03°N, longitude −89.925°W. Demographics History In the 19th century, Michoud was a small ru ...

, by the Higgins-Tucker division of

Higgins Industries Higgins Industries was the company owned by Andrew Higgins based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Higgins Industries is most famous for the design and production of the Higgins boat, an amphibious landing craft referred to as LCVP (landi ...

under the direction of Andrew Jackson Higgins. Construction was done on behalf of the United States government for the war production during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

of plywood C-76 cargo planes and

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force ( infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are large ...

. The project cost $180 million ($2.8 billion in 2018). Production of the C-76 never commenced and instead produced 2

Curtiss C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurised high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company pub ...

in 1943 and remaining order cancelled in 1944. The facility was referred to as Michoud (Factory) Airfield in the 1940s and briefly as a National Guard field in 1949, but became inactive by 1952. During the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

it made engines for Sherman and Patton tanks, and boasted a 5,500-foot paved runway. It came under the management of NASA in 1961, and was used for the construction of the S-IC first stage of the

rockets and the

S-IB The S-IB stage was the first stage of the Saturn IB launch vehicle, which was used for Earth orbital missions. It was composed of nine propellant containers, eight fins, a thrust structure assembly, eight H-1 rocket engines, and many other comp ...

first stage of the

Saturn IB The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43, ...

rockets built by

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automot ...

Corporation. It is home to the first stage of the last-constructed Saturn V, SA-515, built by The

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

Company. The factory's ceiling height limitation - 12 meters, was unable to allow the construction of the bigger

Saturn C-8 The Saturn C-8 was the largest member of the Saturn series of rockets to be designed. It was a potential alternative to the Nova rocket, should NASA have chosen a direct ascent method of lunar exploration for the Apollo program. The first stage ...

direct Moon vehicle, and therefore was one of the major reasons why the smaller C-5 (later renamed Saturn V) was chosen instead of the originally planned Moon vehicle. The runway was slowly transformed into Saturn Boulevard in the 1960s with the middle becoming a heliport and decommissioned by the 1970s. The majority of the NASA factory's history was focused on construction and production of NASA's

Space Shuttle external tank The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the ...

(ET). Beginning with the rollout of ET-1 on June 29, 1979, which flew on STS-1, 136 tanks were produced throughout the Space Shuttle program, ending with the flight-ready tank ET-122, which flew on STS-134, rolled out on September 20, 2010. A single tank produced at the facility, ET-94, was not used in spaceflight and remained at Michoud as a test article. Modular parts for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

were fabricated at the facility in the mid-1990s until 2010. The factory is now the location for the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any r ...

(SLS)'s core and future second stage construction by Boeing. SLS is the most powerful rocket in the history of spaceflight. It carries the

Orion spacecraft Orion (officially Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the Europ ...

, whose crew module is also being built at Michoud, but by Lockheed Martin. It has 50% more volume than the Apollo command capsule and will carry four to six astronauts. The first launch occurred on November 16, 2022.

Hurricane Katrina

The facility did not experience significant flooding during Hurricane Katrina due to a natural

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

that runs along its northwestern boundary, the

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastl ...

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 of Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'', 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 the NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal, NASA's highest bravery award. On September 16, 2005

announced that the repairs were progressing faster than anticipated, 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 the facility reopened to all personnel. On February 7, 2017, an EF3 tornado carved a path through

Orleans Parish New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

first SLS launch until late 2022.

Buildings

SLS Liquid Oxygen Tank Hardware in Welding

The facility consists of four large buildings in one complex: * Building 1 comprises the main manufacturing building (Building number 103), and the North and South Vertical Assembly Buildings (Building numbers 115 and 110 respectively). The North VAB was constructed in 2011, initially to add new vertical welding equipment. The main manufacturing building is where the majority of preliminary fabrication and welding activities take place - the Space Launch System core stage (and previously the

Space Shuttle External Tank The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the ...

, ISS modular components, and the Saturn V first stage) were manufactured. The building stretches 512 by 340 meters in dimensions, and contains over 40 sub-areas for different manufacturing and structural assembly operations. A series of internal roads made from polished concrete provide ease of access by factory vehicles, trams, and overhead cranes to move components around. They run the whole length of the factory building. Factory floor office buildings and engineering rooms located in various ends of the main manufacturing building. Near the South VAB is an

electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to ...

and casting equipment. In front of the main manufacturing building is the administration offices, lobby, restaurants and engineering conference rooms. There is also a gym, retail stores, media lab, a medical area and a large cafeteria provided for the workers. Facing north is a factory floor museum display area, with mission patches, flags and memorials. * Building 2 is an external building that is used to manufacture smaller components and space station equipment, for example small components for the

. It also supplies various small components such as fasteners to the main building. * Building 3 is another external building for various manufacturing processes, and contains a laboratory, office space and technical storage areas. Building 3-20 is the employees dormitory building, and contains a restaurant and offices. * Building 4 is located south of the complex. It is an industrial workshop for the processing and application of spray-on insulation foam to SLS tank components. Space Shuttle external tank spares were also housed there. * Adjacent to the main manufacturing building are more foam application workshops, power transformers for the arc furnace and other facilities, and large amounts of open space. In front of the South VAB, rocket parts are moved from this building to the side internal workshops across the plaza for inspection and checks. The SLS core stage test simulator (made of steel) is also located in this area. * The former National Finance Center (NSF) - located west of the complex; housed offices for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and contained several large conference rooms, a restaurant and a ballroom for NASA employees and visitor events. The building was badly damaged by a tornado in 2017, which rendered the building irreparable. It was subsequently demolished in 2019 and a new replacement is yet to be built. 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 The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 196 ...

, or rarely back to the main

in Huntsville, Alabama, or the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing.

Other and future activities

Drone_view_of_NASA's_Michoud_Assembly_Facility

The Michoud Assembly Facility also houses other organizations such as the National Finance Center operated by the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

, the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

, and GE. The factory complex is open to the public (though through pre-booking in advance). Visitors must sign in at main reception and clear security. NASA planned to use the rocket factory to build the structure for several components of the cancelled

Constellation program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" an ...

, including the

, the Ares I

Upper Stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage ...

, and the Ares V Core Stage. Under the Obama administration, the Constellation Program was cancelled in 2010, 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. 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. Portions of ''

Ender's Game ''Ender's Game'' is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they d ...

'', '' G.I. Joe: Retaliation'', and '' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'' were filmed at the factory.

Incidents

On May 24, 1988, TACA Flight 110 operated with a

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

jetliner made a successful emergency landing on a grassy

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, which had been reused as a road, Saturn Boulevard. It was flown the short distance to New Orleans International Airport, where it was repaired.

Gallery

File:Barrel Section of the Space Launch System Core Stage.jpg, SLS core stage segment at its I-STIR weld equipment in the North Vertical Assembly Building File:SLS Liquid Hydrogen Fuel Tank.jpg, Welding of the SLS liquid hydrogen tank in the South Vertical Assembly Building File:SLS Intertank moving down the factory floor.jpg,

inter-tank section moving down the factory floor to the South VAB for vertical testing File:Final wield of first space bound Orion.jpg, EFT-1 Orion after final weld on June 22, 2012 in the Main Manufacturing Building. File:Michoud Electric Arc Furnace.jpg, Electric Arc Furnace File:Final assembly of SLS liquid hydrogen tank structural test article.jpg, Final Assembly of the liquid hydrogen tank structural test article in the South VAB, December 2018 File:Space Launch System liquid hydrogen tank.jpg, The completed SLS liquid hydrogen tank structural test article in the South Vertical Assembly Building, December 2018 File:Orion Pressure Vessel for Exploration Mission-2.jpg, Factory workers welding the pressure vessel of the EM-2 Orion File:SLS Core Stage at Michoud Assembly Facility.jpg, SLS barrel section in the North VAB File:NASAMichoudNOLAOct2009.JPG, The South Vertical Assembly Building viewed from Gentilly Road. The electrical substation provides power for the factory's electric arc furnace File:MAF North Vertical Assembly Building.jpg, The North Vertical Assembly Building File:Saturn V Stage at Michould Assembly Facility - GPN-2000-000042.jpg, Saturn V S-IC stage vertical hoisting in the South VAB in 1967 File:Horsepower and Rocketpower (15869919574).jpg, The site as seen in 1915 (showing the smokestacks of the old French sugar plantation) and the same area in 1966 (bottom picture) with the factory in the background. File:Heat Rejection System (HRS) Radiator.jpg, ISS radiator panels in a workshop File:ISS_S3_truss_manufacturing_at_Michoud.jpg, ISS S3 truss segment

milling Milling may refer to: * Milling (minting), forming narrow ridges around the edge of a coin * Milling (grinding), breaking solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting in a mill * Milling (machining), a process of using rota ...

File:Four NASA Barges at Michoud Assembly Facility (9464619499).jpg, Barge shipping port 600m south of the factory complex File:ET leaves MAF.jpg,

being moved from Building Number 4 File:MAF Factory Floor tour.jpg, The factory floor during a visitor tram tour File:Aerial View of Michould Assembly Facility (MAF) - GPN-2000-000046.jpg, The factory complex in 1968 File:Aerial_View_of_NASA's_Rocket_Factory.png, Aerial view, c. 1990 File:ISS US lab and Node1 modules at Michoud.jpg, ISS US lab and Node 1 modules File:CAHRF Cafeteria.jpg, Cafeteria File:Buffet meals at CAHRF, Michoud New Orleans.jpg, Employees' meals File:NSF ballroom area.jpg, Main ballroom of the National Finance Center File:Artemis 1 RS-25.jpg, Completed SLS core stage for Artemis I.

References

External links

National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Michoud Assembly FacilityNational Center for Advanced Manufacturing
* * {{Authority control NASA facilities Buildings and structures in New Orleans Historic American Engineering Record in Louisiana Manufacturing plants Manufacturing buildings and structures Manufacturing Apollo program Manufacturing in the United States Manufacturing plants in the United States Space Shuttle program Space technology research institutes Aerospace research institutes Aviation research institutes Boeing manufacturing facilities Industrial buildings completed in 1940 1940 establishments in Louisiana