NEW ORLEANS — It’s been 50 years since someone walked on the moon, but thanks to rockets being built in New Orleans, mankind is returning to the lunar surface.
Several key components for NASA’s Artemis rockets are being built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East.
This month, one of those rockets will go on an unmanned mission to the moon, blazing a path for astronauts to follow a year later.
But that’s just the start.
“The difference between Apollo and this mission is that we want to go to the moon and establish a presence on the moon – a permanent presence – and then actually go to Mars from the moon,” Lonnie Dutreix, director of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, said.
And it’s not mistake that the journey to Mars starts in New Orleans.
Components for every rocket that’s carried humans into outer space have been built at the Michoud facility. And with the Artemis mission in full swing, Michoud is operating at levels it hasn’t seen in years.
“The hardware that’s being built and certified and ready for flat here today is going to put us back in the lunar vicinity, back on the moon,” NASA Associate Stages Manager Josh Whitehead said. “It’s just an exciting time.”
The capsules currently being built at Michoud will someday carry the first woman and first person of color to step foot on the moon.
And when they arrive, it will be women engineers like Amanda Gert-Jejansen and Ashley Guidry who helped them get there.
Born and raised in Louisiana, the two LSU grads are leading the team building the core stage for the Artemis II.
“There’s definitely a sense of pride to be from here and to be working on a project being built here,” Guidry said.
And with the success of the Artemis program, officials say the road to outer space will go through New Orleans for a long time.
“It’s a dream come true,” Gert-Jejansen said. “We get to build a rocket every day in New Orleans. I definitely didn’t think that’s what I’d be doing when I grew up – that this cool of a job existed in New Orleans.”
Pieces of Artemis two and three are being worked on in Michoud now. Artemis One is set to launch on it’s unmanned mission on Aug. 29. Artemis Two is set to take astronauts back into space, but not land on the moon, in 2024. Artemis Three is expected to put astronauts back on the moon’s surface in 2025.
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