A month after the space shuttle Endeavour passed over the Michoud Assembly Facility on its final journey to California, NASA officials on Wednesday looked to the future as they gave business owners from across the country an update on the Space Launch System, a new mega-rocket designed to transport astronauts to deep space. The seminar in eastern New Orleans drew more than 150 people from dozens of businesses, including some already partnering on the project and others interested in working alongside one of its major contractors, like Boeing, said Todd May, the manager of the program.
Hundreds of high-paying jobs are expected to be added when construction on the program reaches its peak, starting next year and leveling off in 2015, said May. He would not, however, give an exact number of jobs that could be created.
The space agency selected Michoud to construct the major components of the rocket last year. The heavy-lift rocket's massive stage core will be built there, and the engines that will power the vehicle beyond low-Earth orbit and into deep space will be test-fired at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Thousands of people worked at Michoud from the early-1970s until the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, peaking at about 7,500 in the 1990s. After the Constellation program ended, much of the facility went unused. That's changed as work returns to the site, which now employs about 2,500 full-time workers.
That number is expected to grow. Boeing spokeswoman Patricia Soloveichik said her company expects more than double its workforce on the project, from 120 employees to more than 300 by 2014.
The Space Launch System is designed to transport astronauts to destinations such as asteroids and Mars over the next decade-and-a-half, an Obama administration goal. An unmanned test mission for the mega-rocket is slated for 2017.
To put it into perspective: If the heat energy from the Space Launch System could be converted to electric power, its two boosters could produce enough juice over two minutes to power more than 92,000 homes for a full day, according to NASA.
"This is one of the most incredible NASA facilities in the country," said Roy Malone, director of the facility. "There are so many communities that would absolutely die for something like this."