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Workers Prep For Final NASA Missions At Michoud, WDSU
"Two sets of astronauts will visit NASA's Michoud facility this week, even as the facility's future remains in question. Hundreds of workers have been laid off over the past two years. Lockheed Martin was contracted between 1973 and 2008 to do $10.7 billion in work for the federal government. With federal funding for NASA in question, the 1,426 people who still work there wonder what is next for the agency and for themselves."
Fla. Senator Says Obama 'Restructuring' NASA Plans, WESH
"Florida's senior senator, after talking to the president, said U.S. astronauts could wind up launching in an American-built spacecraft after all. It would mean developing a giant rocket based on space shuttle engines, tanks and boosters to go with a new spacecraft, Billow said, perhaps the very one NASA was designing anyway."
NASA's down-to-earth problem, op ed, Lou Friedman, LA Times
"However the budget proposal is acted on in Congress, it is clear that the nation is not going to go ahead with the Constellation project, which had a primary goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020 -- neither its Ares I rocket, which was to replace the space shuttle in delivering humans into Earth orbit, nor its moon mission. The 2004 Vision for Space Exploration may have been farsighted, but its implementation plan for Constellation was shortsighted: an inadequate goal and inadequate funds to achieve it."
Our Opinion: Saving Constellation is a noble mission, editorial, Tallahassee Democrat
"We salute Florida's temporary U.S. Sen. George LeMieux for working mightily in Washington to stop the de-escalation of America's space programs, most specifically termination of the Constellation Program as submitted in a budget proposal by the president. Mr. LeMieux, offering an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization bill regarding NASA, knows the importance of space missions to Florida. If diminished, hundreds of jobs will be lost along the Space Coast, but the loss of science, research, technology and space travel aspirations will create a negative ripple effect in myriad ways well beyond our state."
Can commercial space win over Congress?, Space Review
"At last week's Senate hearing ULA president and CEO Michael Gass said his company was interested in and capable of serving the human spaceflight market. "The EELV rockets provide the quickest and safest approach for closing the gap following the retirement of the space shuttle," he said. "We will be working with multiple companies that will compete for crew services, and we plan to provide launch services in support of their proposals."
More than a quarter century ago (!!!) I was the director of operations for the Louisiana Nature and Science Center in eastern New Orleans. The folks at Michoud (BTW, it's pronounced "Meechoo")were our partners in helping us run what amounted to a Spacecamp-type experience for the budget challenged. Given the restaurants then available, I often ate lunch at the cafeteria there. Security? no need back then. Rockwell also provided us with panels of the Shuttle cockpit instruments, and others ejection seats. Our staff made a pretty nifty reproduction of the Shuttle flight deck. Kids loved it and so did we. Our biggest hopes were dashed when Martin Marietta lost the station module contract to Boeing, though. In 2005 Katrina literally destroyed the entire nature center and swept it out to sea. Nary a trace remains today of any of the buildings or classrooms. All our space stuff remains just a memory-along with the memories of our many classes and students. I myself dreamed up a program for the vision impared, using space suits anjd Shuttle gear provided by the nearby Stennis Space Center teacher resource center. Alas, that too has long been closed.
The good people of Michoud are unsung heroes of the Shuttle era. Hope they land on their feet back home!