page_title: Michoud Assembly Facility
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Michoud Assembly Facility / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: Precision Meets Progress in Welding on SLS Liquid Oxygen Tank Hardware A liquid oxygen tank confidence article for NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System, completes final welding on the Vertical Assembly Center at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. This is the first glimpse of what one of the two tanks will look like that make up the SLS core stage. Towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle’s RS-25 engines. Confidence hardware verifies weld procedures are working as planned and tooling-to-hardware interfaces are correct. It will also be used in developing the application process for the thermal protection system, which is the insulation foam that gives the tank its orange color. The liquid oxygen tank is the smaller of the two tanks in the core stage. Components of the liquid hydrogen tank confidence article completed welding in February at Michoud. All welding for the SLS core stage for the Block I configuration of the rocket -- including confidence, qualification and flight hardware -- will be done this summer in preparation for its first flight with NASA's Orion spacecraft in 2018.
context_page_description: The Michoud Assembly Facility is an 832-acre manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, a district within 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—174,000 m² —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, Denver Colorado.
context_section_description: The facility consists of four large buildings in one complex:
  Building 1 comprises the main manufacturing building (Building number 103), and the North and South Vertical Assembly Buildings (Building numbers 115 and 110 respectively). The North VAB was constructed in 2011, initially to add new vertical welding equipment. The main manufacturing building is where the majority of preliminary fabrication and welding activities take place - the Space Launch System core stage (and previously the Space Shuttle External Tank, ISS modular components, and the Saturn V first stage) were manufactured. The building stretches 512 by 340 meters in dimensions, and contains over 40 sub-areas for different manufacturing and structural assembly operations. A series of internal roads made from polished concrete provide ease of access by factory vehicles, trams, and overhead cranes to move components around. They run the whole length of the factory building. Factory floor office buildings and engineering rooms located in various ends of the main manufacturing building. Near the South VAB is an electric arc furnace and casting equipment. In front of the main manufacturing building is the administration offices, lobby, restaurants and engineering conference rooms. There is also a gym, retail stores, media lab, a medical area and a large cafeteria provided for the workers. Facing north is a factory floor museum display area, with mission patches, flags and memorials.
  Building 2 is an external building that is used to manufacture smaller components and space station equipment, for example small components for the International Space Station. It also supplies various small components such as fasteners to the main building.
  Building 3 is another external building for various manufacturing processes, and contains a laboratory, office space and technical storage areas. Building 3-20 is the employees dormitory building, and contains a restaurant and offices.
  Building 4 is located south of the complex. It is an industrial workshop for the processing and application of spray-on insulation foam to SLS tank components. Space Shuttle external tank spares were also housed there.
  Adjacent to the main manufacturing building are more foam application workshops, power transformers for the arc furnace and other facilities, and large amounts of open space. In front of the South VAB, rocket parts are moved from this building to the side internal workshops across the plaza for inspection and checks. The SLS core stage test simulator (made of steel) is also located in this area.
  The National Finance Center (NSF) - located west of the complex; houses offices for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and contains several large conference rooms, a restaurant and a ballroom for NASA employees and visitor events.
  The shipping port is located 600 meters southwest of the main manufacturing building. Transporting vehicles carrying manufactured SLS components move down Saturn Blvd, past large open fields, to the pier - where the Pegasus Barge is docked. This is where the components are shipped to either their final destination - Kennedy Space Center, or rarely back to the main Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, or the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing.
caption: Welding of the SLS liquid oxygen tank in the South Vertical Assembly Building
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