By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an 832-acre (3.4-km²) site owned by NASA and located in New Orleans East, a large district within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Organizationally, it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It is one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world with 43 environmentally controlled acres under one roof, and it employs approximately 3,700 people. From September 5, 1973 to September 20, 2010 it was used for the construction of the Space Shuttle's External Tanks by its lead contractor Lockheed Martin. The Michoud Assembly Facility is currently a multi-tenant complex maintained and operated by Jacobs Technology in order to allow both commercial and government contractors, as well as government agencies to use the site. - Source: Wikipedia
In a story Sept. 13 about the space shuttle Endeavour's trip to California, The Associated Press reported erroneously the type of shuttle equipment made at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. It made external fuel tanks, not booster rockets.
The baby of NASA's space shuttle fleet is about to leave home _ for good.
