The Michoud Assembly Facility is amazing. The building itself is enormous. This is where they built the Saturn V rockets for the Apollo program. It is also where the large orange external fuel tanks for the Space Shuttle were made. Today this historic building is being used to assemble a new generation of rockets that will take the United States back to the moon. Artemis Day is a celebration that the first of these Artemis rockets has finally been completed. It will soon go to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing. In a little more than a year from now it will take an unmanned trip around the moon.
When you see the size and complexity of these rockets, you begin to realize why the project is already over budget and behind schedule. The Apollo program basically had an unlimited budget. The object was simply to beat the Russians to the moon at all costs. Things are different now. The NASA folks are trying to do something equally as complicated on a much smaller budget. I hope they succeed. You get the impression that everyone at this factory realizes that the entire program could come to a grinding halt at any moment. The program is expensive and the politicians who approve things like this have been known to change their minds on a dime.
I think NASA invites me to events like this because they know that for space exploration to continue, people need to be enthusiastic about returning to the moon. They're not satisfied with news reports anymore. They want people talking about what they are doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, and anywhere else they might reach a new audience. If nobody is interested, the program will die.
Most of the people I met today weren't even born when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. This seems weird to me. I remember the moon landings vividly, but it is just something in a history book to a growing percentage of the population.
I have a feeling that most of these younger folks had an easier time getting to the Michoud Assembly Facility this morning than I did. I got lost several times. Even the GPS in my rental car failed me, taking me to a dead end street on the edge of a bayou. I followed the printed instructions from NASA to the letter and ended up at the wrong Michoud building. This time NASA was wrong. They sent out incorrect direction on how to reach our bus. Luckily someone was able to direct me to the right parking lot before the bus left without me.
Everybody loves to eat in New Orleans. Even the staff cafeteria at Michoud had some delicious creole food. People must live on red beans and rice down here. It's everywhere. It's the same way with Gumbo. Everywhere I've been had a pot of Gumbo cooking. They probably eat this stuff for breakfast. I love the flavors, but I have a feeling I'm going to have heartburn tonight.
Tomorrow we go to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. It's further away than I thought, but I still think I'll have plenty of time to get back to the airport and catch my flight to Dallas. I hope it doesn't rain. The plan was to be outdoors at Stennis tomorrow and I didn't bring a raincoat. I don't think anyone else did either, so maybe the NASA folks are coming up with a Plan B this evening.
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