NEW ORLEANS — The mission to the moon, Mars and beyond begins at Michoud.
Lonnie Dutreix should know; the University of New Orleans grad and River Ridge native is the Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the NASA Assembly Center in New Orleans East.
"We've been on the front end of every human space mission to the moon, International Space Station and, now, to Mars," Dutreix said.
NASA is making history once again where Louisiana workers once built rockets for the Apollo program and external fuel tanks for the Space Shuttle.
The space agency has now assembled four of the five pieces of the new Space Launch System (SLS). It's the most powerful rocket ever produced.
It's set to launch the Orion Space Capsule, also built in New Orleans, to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
The space program was recently dubbed Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology.
Astronaut Ricky Arnold said he has confidence in the hardware and people who built it.
"The community of New Orleans has played a critical role in human space flight and it's the people here that have made everything we have done in space possible," Arnold said.
The rocket will be used during the first mission, an unmanned flight, now slated for the Fall of 2020. It will be powered by four engines recycled from NASA's retired Space Shuttles.
Friday, NASA Deputy Administrator James Morhard visited the Michoud facility.
"What's behind me, the SLS rocket is really the only way that we can repeatedly go back and forth to the moon," Morehard said. "It's the only way we can repeatedly go back and forth to Mars. It's critical."
About 1200 Michoud employees are now working on the program. NASA officials said they expect to hire up to 1500 additional workers in New Orleans as the Artemis program ramps up.
"We expect the workforce to increase," Dutreix said. "If you're a home grown Louisiana person in a technical field and you want to stay here, there's going to be jobs here."
Artemis still faces a myriad of hurdles both technological and budgetary. Recently, it was revealed that it could cost $20 to $30 billion dollars over the original estimates to return to the Moon.
NASA's Deputy Administrator admitted with a program of this magnitude there are always budget hurdles.
"There's never enough funding to handle all the requirement of the federal government," Morehard said. "But, this is, I believe, a national priority."
Artemis 1, an unmanned flight is now set for Fall 2020
Artemis 2, with astronauts on board would fly in 2022.
Artemis 3, which would put a man and woman on the Moon, is set for 2024.