Комплекс NASA в Мишу: История и Современность ракетного производства

NASA rocket manufacturing complex in Michoud, New Orleans

The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, a section of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Organizationally it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, 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 rockets. From September 5, 1973, to September 20, 2010, the factory was used for the construction of the Space Shuttle's external fuel tanks by Martin Marietta Corporation.

The facility was originally constructed in 1940 at the village of Michoud, Louisiana, by the Higgins Tucker division of Higgins Industries 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 of plywood C 76 cargo planes and the Higgins Boat landing craft. 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 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 it made engines for Sherman and Patton tanks, and boasted a 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 Saturn V rockets and the S IB first stage of the Saturn IB rockets built by Chrysler Corporation. It is home to the first stage of the last constructed Saturn V, SA 515, built by The Boeing Company. The factory's ceiling height limitation 12 meters, was unable to allow the construction of the bigger Saturn C 8 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. 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 were fabricated at the facility in the mid 1990s until 2010. The factory is now the location for the Space Launch System (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, 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.

The facility did not experience significant flooding during Hurricane Katrina due to a natural ridge that runs along its northwestern boundary, the levee 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 NASA 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, 2005 the facility reopened to all personnel. On February 7, 2017, an EF3 tornado carved a path through Orleans Parish, in which the factory is located. Two major buildings including the main manufacturing building were damaged, with multiple broken windows. 5 people were injured, and resulting repairs and other factors contributed to the delay of the first SLS launch until late 2022.

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 Coast Guard, 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, including the Orion spacecraft, the Ares I Upper 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, G. I. Joe: Retaliation, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were filmed at the factory.

On May 24, 1988, TACA Flight 110 operated with a Boeing 737 300 jetliner made a successful emergency landing on a grassy levee 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 fully repaired.