Michoud Assembly Facility
Coordinates: 30 ° 1'22 " N , 89 ° 54'54" W.
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The Michoud Assembly Facility ( MAF ) is a facility of the US space agency NASA , which is under the administration of the Marshall Space Flight Center . The 337 hectare large area is located east of New Orleans ( Louisiana ) and is managed by Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems operated. The first stage of the Saturn rocket and the external tank for the space shuttle were manufactured here.
MAF is one of the largest production facilities in the world and has a factory hall with a covered area of 174,000 square meters. This "External Tank Manufacturing Building", internally referred to as Building No. 103, dates from 1942.
The town of Michoud , around 25 kilometers east of New Orleans, takes its name from the French Antoine Michoud, who settled there in 1827. He bought the land and ran a sugar factory . His heirs continued to run the Antoine Michoud Plantation into the 20th century. The two chimneys that still stand in front of the MAF administration building date from this time.
In addition to Lockheed, there are other facilities on the MAF site. In March 1999, for example, the MSFC established a cooperation with the state of Louisiana and the University of New Orleans : The National Center for Advanced Manufacturing is developing new technologies and manufacturing processes for future space vehicles for NASA. The US Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center is also located on the MAF.
War production
In 1940 the US government took over the area and built a factory for war production. Liberty freighters were originally built there during World War II . Transport planes were built between the orders - but only two C-46 “Commando” machines left the factory hall. The MAF remained unused until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, when Chrysler produced engines for Sherman and Patton tanks there for four years .
Space production
At the suggestion of Wernher von Braun , the MAF was subordinated to NASA in September 1961. The facility with the huge hall, which was roofed and freely accessible from all sides, seemed very suitable for the production of the Saturn rockets. By the early 1970s, Boeing and Chrysler produced the first stages for the Saturn I , Saturn IB and Saturn V on the site . One of these rocket parts, which are around 40 meters long, is on display on the site. It is the first stage (serial number S-1C-15) of the last Saturn V produced.
With the decision to build the space shuttle following the Apollo program , Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) took over MAF in 1973 in order to produce the 47 m long external tank on the site, which contains the fuel for the three main engines of the orbiter . The MAF has direct water access via the Intracoastal Waterway , via which a barge transported the tanks to the Kennedy Space Center .
After four years of development and construction, the first tank (a test model) was delivered to NASA in September 1977. The first airworthy external tank was handed over in June 1979 and was used in April 1981 when the STS-1 was launched. While all other parts of the shuttle system were reusable, the 27-ton aluminum tank was thrown off after the ascent phase (around eight minutes after take-off) and was lost. The last tank was delivered in September 2010.
Emergency landing of a Boeing 737
On May 24, 1988 both engines failed on Taca International Airways Flight 110 on the approach to New Orleans Airport . The pilots decided not to emergency launch the Boeing 737-300 but to land it on a grassy dike on the MAF site. The maneuver was successful, none of the 45 occupants was injured. After changing the engine, the aircraft was even started again from this dike.
Hurricane Katrina
In the summer of 2005, the MAF was damaged by Hurricane Katrina when it swept across the New Orleans metropolitan area on August 29. The day before, the site had been evacuated - only a group of 38 NASA volunteers remained, as did some Lockheed Martin staff. This "Michoud Hurricane Ride-Out Team" operated the generators and water pumps and tried to protect the inventory as well as possible. These Lockheed Martin employees were awarded one of NASA's highest medals of bravery.
Mainly windows and roofs were damaged (partially covered), whereby rainwater penetrated. The roof of the 70 meter high Vertical Assembly Building was so badly damaged that all 2,400 concrete slabs had to be replaced. The seven external tanks that were on the MAF at the time were only minimally affected. The damage caused amounted to over $ 500 million.
After the hurricane, while flooded New Orleans was in a state of emergency, around three thousand soldiers from the US Navy and National Guard were housed on the MAF premises . They also took part in the clean-up work. On October 3, 2005, the MAF officially reopened, but only with a hull crew. On October 31, 2005, full operation was resumed.
Web links
- NASA: MAF homepage (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philip Sloss: ET-122 arrival marks upcoming Michoud workforce cull, hope for HLV role. NASASpaceFlight.com, September 27, 2010, accessed September 19, 2011 .
- ↑ NASA: NASA Administrator Honors Katrina Heroes. January 5, 2006, accessed January 25, 2017 .