Rocket's Red Glare
During our annual celebration of our independence, when the eyes of millions of Americans are fixed on the sight of Roman candles, crossettes, and bottle rockets filling the sky, the workers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East set their sights a little higher, building the rockets that will take a few brave souls as far beyond America's borders as anyone has ever traveled.
Currently on the assembly line is the core stage for the Space Launch System (SLS). The core makes up 212 of the 322 feet that make up the largest rocket ever flown. Despite being behind schedule and over budget, the program is a fundamental component of NASA's plans for future manned missions, including Artemis III, a return to the moon that the agency has committed to including a woman and person of color on the crew.
Bourgeois at Michoud
Thermal Protection Systems (TPS), Test, and Integration Lead for the NASA Stages team for almost six years, Jacqueline Bourgeois, Jay to her friends, has been working at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) since 2015. A native of Louisiana from Wills Point in nearby Plaquemines Parish, Bourgeois had rocket assembly in her blood. Both of her parents had worked at Michoud since before Bourgeois was born, making her a second-generation employee. Many employees are part of families who have had multiple generations work at the facility, making it something of a family business for a lot of the folks there.
Her mom, Christi Johnson, had worked at MAF for NASA partner companies Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin as a clerical secretary starting in 1981, later moving into the Finance Department. After more than 30 years in Finance, she transitioned to a production planning role before retiring in 2023. Bourgeois' father, Scott Johnson, worked for Martin Marietta, then Lockheed Martin, and finally Boeing, the lead contractor on the Artemis space program. Johnson began as an intern for Martin Marietta in 1982, working the last 11 years of his career in supply chain management for Boeing, beginning in 2012.
"My job could best be described as program management," Bourgeois explained in regards to her work on the SLS. "My team manages the contract to build the SLS Core Stage for the Artemis missions that will bring humanity back to the moon and Mars. It takes a big team to build a big rocket, and I support that team by monitoring the portions of the build associated with thermal protection systems and test and integration work."
SLS Rocket
The SLS is a human-rated rocket, which means that the additional consideration of the safety of living human beings being on board requires extra measures to accommodate the needs of the passengers and crew and facilitate their ability to interface with the equipment. It's a complex process that begins with the design and development of the rocket and continues through to their launch and retrieval, with some of the most crucial concerns happening during the building stage.
"We apply insulating foams to our cryogenic tanks, lines, and valves and ablative cork materials to the areas of the rocket that will see excessive heating," Bourgois explained, describing some of the many tasks involved. "We perform in-process, functional, and integrated test campaigns on individual systems, entire dry structures, and the fully integrated Core Stage. I spend a lot of time each day talking to the folks doing the hands-on work that turns the pieces into the whole. We look for ways to make processes better and prevent problems from impeding our progress."
Enthusiasm for the purpose of the work runs higher at Michoud than at the average factory. "I love America's space program," Bourgeois shared. "I am supportive of any and all efforts to further humanity's journey to the stars, and I am very excited to be a part of it. Walking out on the factory floor and seeing the pieces of our massive rocket come together is awe-inspiring and it's easy to remember that the work we do here at Michoud supports something amazing."
Although her job may have broadened her horizons, Bourgeois prefers to keep her feet on the ground in the literal sense. "Would I go to space? Maybe—for a day trip, I guess," she replied to the question of exploring space personally, deciding she's too attached to the unique patch of terra firma that she calls home.
One factor in particular overrode most other considerations. "I'm entirely too fond of the good food we have here to spend many days eating freeze dried ice cream," she declared. "Though I might want to try sleeping in low gravity—just once. I'd much rather support our astronauts from the ground."
For Bourgeois, like many of the 1,500 employees working at MAF, Michoud is more than a job or even a community. It's a way of life. "I can't picture my life away from Michoud," Bourgois said. "I've all but grown up at this factory. I went to day care in the building that is now our on-site gas station. Every year in middle and high school, I would look forward to the Young Minds at Work event when my parents could bring me to work and show me the giant External Tanks they helped build for the Space Shuttle Program. If I didn't work at Michoud, I think I would be looking for the next closest thing to help send humans further into the cosmos."
