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This Week in NASA History: Michoud Selected as Production Site for Saturn Rockets – Sept. 7, 1961

This week in 1961, Michoud Assembly Facility was selected as the production site for Saturn rockets.
This week in 1961, Michoud Assembly Facility was selected as the production site for Saturn rockets.

This week in 1961, Michoud Assembly Facility was selected as the production site for Saturn rockets. Here, in one of the initial assembly steps for the first stage of the Saturn IB rocket, Michoud workers position a “Spider Beam” to the central liquid-oxygen tank of the S-IB stage. Designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and built by Chrysler Corp. at Michoud, the S-IB stage used eight H-1 engines to produce a combined thrust of 1.6 million pounds. Today, NASA’s Space Launch System rockets and Orion spacecraft for the first three Artemis missions are being built at Michoud. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)