From sugar cane plantations to the Saturn V and beyond
In short: The Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has a storied lineage. Once a French land grant and a sugar refinery, this massive industrial site now houses the world's largest robotic tool for building the rockets that carry humans to the moon.
The history of the Michoud Assembly Facility begins long before the Space Race. A 34,500-acre grant from the French Crown was initially bestowed upon merchant Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent in 1763. By 1827, the site was acquired by Antoine Michoud, whose family operated a sugar cane plantation and refinery there until the early 20th century. Today, two brick smokestacks from that original refinery still stand on the facility grounds.
The United States government purchased the land in 1940 to manufacture cargo aircraft and tank engines. As the competition with the Soviet Union intensified, NASA acquired the facility in 1961, then known as the Michoud Ordinance Plant. The site became a cornerstone of American lunar ambitions, with Chrysler and Boeing utilizing the plant to produce the first stages of the Saturn I and Saturn V rockets. While the facility was large enough for these massive components, it lacked the space to manufacture the Saturn V's second stage.
The facility's role has continuously evolved to meet the needs of human spaceflight. In 1965, it was officially renamed the Michoud Assembly Facility. Following the Apollo era, it produced the Space Shuttle's external tank for three decades, from the 1980s through the 2000s. Currently, the 829-acre site is focused on the Space Launch System (SLS). It is assembling the SLS core stages and preparing for the production of the Exploration Upper Stage. By using the Pegasus barge and an Intracoastal Waterway port, the site transfers massive equipment, including NASA's biggest barge-transported component, the SLS core stage.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Michoud Builder of Shuttle's External Tank
- Also: Michoud History - NASA
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