New Orleans Gets A Boost From NASA
Well this is good news when there isn’t a lot to report. NASA has announced that Lockheed Martin will build the Orion crew module and Boeing will build the $1.13 billion upper stage of the Ares I launch rocket and the rocket’s $799.5 million navigation and control system in NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (located in the Eastern part of New Orleans). From the Associated Press:
The route to the moon and perhaps to Mars now goes through New Orleans—and the detour couldn’t come at a better time in the city’s struggle to rebuild its shattered economy after Hurricane Katrina.
With thousands of houses still in ruins and its population reduced by almost 170,000, a boost is on the way for New Orleans in the form of high-wage jobs and contracts for next-generation space systems at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility.
Before the storm, New Orleans’ economy thrived on low-wage tourism. But the $156 million payroll at Michoud—some salaries are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars—generates paychecks significantly above the city’s median annual income of about $27,000.
This is just good news across the board. Not only jobs, but high-tech and high-paying jobs. I wish there were more Federal agencies looking for locate jobs in the New Orleans metro area.
