Step Inside NASA’s Rocket Factory: The Michoud Assembly Facility

Take a tour of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where NASA is building the world’s most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and beyond. To make big rockets, you need a big space. The Michoud rocket factory could hold 31 football fields. Inside the factory, engineers use modern robotic welding tools to manufacture the 212-foot-tall core stage structure, which will soon be assembled for the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion: Exploration Mission-1. SLS and Orion flight hardware as well as critical test articles have been built at Michoud. Some large pieces of hardware are transported for testing and launch on NASA’s barge Pegasus, which had to be modified to carry the largest rocket stage being build today. To learn more about Michoud: www.nasa.gov/c...