What is Michoud doing right now?

[Shadow Addict]

I live in New Orleans, and whenever my dad and I go out east on I-10 we detour to pass by the Michoud plant to look at the S-IC sitting outside it. I've been wondering recently what exactly Michoud is doing right now. I'm guessing that all the Shuttle ETs have already been made, and Ares is too far off for any stages to be made for that. Is it just not being used right now?

 

[DaveS]

I live in New Orleans, and whenever my dad and I go out east on I-10 we detour to pass by the Michoud plant to look at the S-IC sitting outside it. I've been wondering recently what exactly Michoud is doing right now. I'm guessing that all the Shuttle ETs have already been made, and Ares is too far off for any stages to be made for that. Is it just not being used right now?

Nope. They have 4 more ETs undergoing work right now. 3 of them are not yet complete ETs where the three main sections(LH2 tank, Intertank and LOX tank) have been joined together.

So they're busy alright! And will be for while yet!

 

[Shadow Addict]

Oh wow. Are those for the upcoming shuttle missions? I guess I'd assumed those were completed well in advance.

Well, it's nice to know something is going on in that giant building! Always made me sort of sad to think that such an important part of spaceflight history might be going unused.