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Old Posted Dec 22, 2007, 11:48 AM
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NASA Michoud: Research and Development Building

NEW ORLEANS -- Construction officially began Tuesday on a $40 million office and research building at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

The state is paying for the 120,000 square-foot building, which is officially part of the University of New Orleans.

Officials at Tuesday's groundbreaking called it a symbol of the state commmitment that helped to keep NASA in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"Just two years ago, many people would have thought that today would be impossible," said Robert Lightfoot, deputy director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Two years ago, New Orleans was still drying out after Hurricane Katrina, which hit Aug. 29, 2005. But the 832-acre Michoud site in eastern New Orleans never flooded: its levees held, and 36 workers stayed through the storm and kept the compound's pumps going.

UNO Chancellor Tim Ryan said several people have told him that dedication not only kept the shuttle tank work at Michoud but played a major part in bringing work on the next moon rockets.

The space shuttle work, which keeps about 2,500 people employed at Michoud, is scheduled to end in 2010. In the meantime, work will start toward switching to assembling parts of the next set of moon rockets - the Ares I, which will launch astronauts, and Ares V, a cargo rocket.

The facility also made the first stages of the Saturn rockets for the Apollo manned space program in the 1960s.

"Since Apollo, every astronaut who's flown has flown on hardware built here in Louisiana," Lightfoot said. He quoted Dave Scott, commander of Apollo 15, when he walked on the moon in 1971: "There's a fundamental truth to our nature: Man must explore."

He continued, "Today is the next step on this long journey of exploration."

The state also put up $20 million for the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing, which also is officially part of UNO.

Louisiana's total commitment will total $102 million, said Gov. Kathleen Blanco and outgoing economic development Secretary Michael Olivier.

He didn't detail the remainder; Lightfoot said it includes $40 million to retool for the bigger rocket stages needed by the Ares program, and $2 million set aside for planning, economic development and education.

What it boils down to, Blanco said, is that "Louisiana will continue to have a hands-on role in continuing the next level of space exploration."
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