NASA Michoud, New Orleans

NASA Michoud, New Orleans

This was formerly the site of the village of Michoud before it was absorbed into New Orleans, then a World War II Defense plant that made landing craft and aircraft, and since 1961 a NASA facility.

This was formerly the site of the village of Michoud before it was absorbed into New Orleans, then a World War II Defense plant that made landing craft and aircraft, and since 1961 a NASA facility. Apollo Moon Rocket boosters were built here, and in recent decades, the fuel tanks for the Space Shuttle. With the end of the Shuttle program, the future for NASA Michoud is uncertain. Meanwhile, visitors can park briefly in the little visitor lot on Old Gentilly Road, to look or take a snapshot of an Apollo Saturn V booster on display out front, a pair of smokestacks from the antebellum Michoud Plantation preserved in front of the main building, and what you can see of the outside of the Assembly Building from this spot. (Visitors are not allowed inside without advance arrangement and a sponsor, although on rare occasions limited numbers of the public are allowed in to part of the facility for special events.)