Michoud Recovering from Tornado

Recovery efforts are underway at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which was hit by a tornado Feb. 7. In accounting for all 3,500 employees at the facility, officials reported five suffered minor injuries. Buildings, structures and parked cars sustained damage, but there was no reported damage to hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Orion spacecraft, or the barge Pegasus docked at Michoud. NASA will release updates on the facility’s status as they become available.

SpaceX Launch Targeted for Mid-February

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is targeted to launch no earlier than Feb. 18 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. This will be the first flight from the historic launch pad since the last space shuttle mission in 2011. SpaceX has since leased the pad from NASA and has begun modifications in preparation to fly astronauts on NASA missions to the station under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The cargo being delivered to the station on this flight includes experiments with potential to fight human disease and a new autonomous spacecraft docking technology for testing.

SLS Booster Hardware Arrives at KSC

The forward skirt for the left-hand solid rocket booster of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket arrived recently at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where NASA and Orbital ATK engineers will prepare it for the first uncrewed flight test of the SLS with NASA’s Orion spacecraft on top. The forward skirts are located near the top of the solid rocket boosters, which will generate a combined 7.2 million pounds of thrust to help power the massive SLS rocket off Kennedy’s launch pad 39B.

NASA Aerospace Days

NASA officials from Wallops Flight Facility and Langley Research Center, both in Virginia, visited the state capitol in Richmond recently as part of the annual NASA AeroSpace Days. The event allows leaders from NASA and the aerospace industry to speak with Virginia policymakers about the benefits the aerospace sector brings to the state – including opportunities for employment, commercial partnerships, and technological innovation.