NASA to build next-gen spaceship in NOLA

From CNN.com - Technology:

he 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. A worker rides a bicycle through NASA's Michoud Assembly Center in New Orleans in early December. With thousands of houses still in ruins and its population reduced by almost 170,000, New Orleans is getting a boost 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. Michoud, in the city's eastern section, had a cloudy future before the storm struck in August 2005: The space shuttle fuel tanks it used to turn out won't be needed after the shuttle program ends in 2010, and there was no sure replacement for one of the region's largest payrolls.

Read the whole article