Michoud damaged by tornado

NEW ORLEANS -- Michoud Assembly Facility in East New Orleans suffered significant damage from a tornado that hit Tuesday, but NASA said no critical space hardware being built there was damaged. NASA said in a statement late Feb. 7 that all of Michoud's 3,500 employees were accounted for, with five suffering minor injuries. NASA said the tornado damaged at least two buildings, including the main manufacturing building. NASA uses Michoud to support assembly of the Orion crew vehicle and the core stage of the Space Launch System. The storm did not damage any Orion or SLS hardware currently at Michoud, NASA said in its statement. (Sources: SpaceNews, 02/08/17, WWL-TV, nola.com, 02/07/17)