NASA Keeps External Tank Work in New Orleans

NASA chief Michael Griffin surveys damage to one of the space shuttle's external tank which occured during Hurricane Katrina. CREDIT: NASA.

CAPE CANAVERAL - The recovery at NASA's hurricane-battered external tank factory in New Orleans is going so well the agency says it will not need to move some of the work to Kennedy Space Center as once thought.

The space agency announced Friday that the Michoud Assembly Facility will be ready to resume tank work before facilities at KSC could be outfitted for the job. Power is back on and temporary repairs have been made to buildings.

Hurricane Katrina did more than $1 billion in damage to the tank factory and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where space shuttle main engines are tested before shipment to KSC for flight.

The space agency said Friday it is assessing the number and type of workers needed to get minimal operations restarted at Michoud. NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin have now been able to account for all but 76 of the factory's 2,000 employees.

Tentative plans call for shipment of two tanks from KSC in October. Once back at the factory, the tanks will aid in NASA's investigation of why fuel tank foam insulation came free during Discovery's flight in July -- repeating the problem that caused the Columbia accident in 2003.

The agency expects to have to make further safety modifications to the foam on the tanks, and that work will be done at the New Orleans factory.

The earliest possible date for NASA's next shuttle mission is March, but it could be delayed into the summer or fall of next year.

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