End of NASA era for New Orleans with shuttle tank

End of NASA era for New Orleans with shuttle tank

NEW ORLEANS

The end of an era for Louisiana's role in manned space flight arrived Thursday when the giant external fuel tank for the final scheduled space shuttle plant rolled out of its manufacturing plant.

With the tank mounted on rollers and ready to be hauled to the Mississippi River and a barge trip to Florida, about 1,000 employees gathered for a ceremony at NASA's Michoud Assembly with many knowing their jobs will end this fall.

"Working here has not just been a job, it's been a mission," said Terry Lee, 50, an associate production manager with 20 years at Lockheed Martin Corp., the tank's contractor. "We've put our hearts and souls into this. We're like a family. The astronauts are part of our family."

The latest tank is scheduled to propel the Endeavor into space on Feb. 26 -- the last shuttle mission unless Congress agrees to a NASA's request to fund one more after that.

The plant has built 134 shuttle tanks since Lockheed Martin won the contract in 1973. Following several years of planning, design and engineering, the first tank was delivered to NASA in 1979.

At the height of the shuttle program, about 5,000 people were employed building tanks. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, the shuttle program was slowed -- and, along with it, the Lockheed Martin payroll went into a steady decline.

Lockheed Martin had 2,700 people on a $156 million annual payroll in January 2008, a number that has dropped to about 1,000 now. In contrast to most of the New Orleans economy -- with a median annual income of about $27,000 -- some of the space jobs pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Company spokesman Harry Wadsworth said four major layoffs occurred in 2009, followed by layoffs on the final Friday of each month in 2010. "Once the final tank comes through an area with a skill, such as welders, their job has gone away," he said.

There's been no mystery as to when a worker will be laid off: Each employee has a departure date that can be planned for. Many have been told that Sept. 30 is the dreaded day. With the national economy still dragging, planning for the future is difficult.

"I'm just going to wait and see what happens," said Tom Melchionne, 56, a quality inspector for 29 years. "It may be early retirement."

But 47-year-old Debbie Kerr, who came to Michoud 30 years ago right of high school, said she is headed to California with her husband and his new job. Although she's a New Orleans native, she said there is little chance of finding comparable employment in the region.

"I can't find a job around here doing what I'm doing and making the money that I'm making," she said.

There is one more tank yet to be finished -- but it may never see duty. A tank damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 is being redone in case NASA gets one more shuttle flight. That tank is scheduled for delivery in September.

At one time, there was hope that the planned next phase of the U.S. space program -- Constellation, a plan to carry astronauts back to the moon and perhaps to Mars -- would replace at least a large chunk of the shuttle jobs. But President Barack Obama has moved to scrub that George W. Bush-era program, though it won't become official until the next federal budget is passed. The program could still be included in the upcoming spending plan.

About 200 Lockheed Martin employees are working on the Orion space capsule as part of Constellation, while a handful of Boeing Co. employees are working on the proposed Ares I launch rocket under NASA funding for the current budget year.

Wadsworth said at least 500 employees would lose their jobs in September. About 200 will be retained to support fuel tank functions at Cape Canaveral until after the last mission.

One of those workers with a bit more time is Dave Buras, 57, a materials engineer who has been with the tank program since the start. He said he's almost always on call and makes numerous trips to Florida before each shuttle mission.

"I've got so much time in, I'm looking forward to retiring," Buras said.