LSU to oversee Space Camp development

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana State University is set to oversee development of Louisiana Space Campus, central hub for space-related industries that will be located in East New Orleans. LSU will be one of the major partners in the development of the campus, according to Bob Fudickar, executive director of the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The Space Campus was announced in a March 10, 2021, press release by Gov. John Bel Edwards. The campus will target commercial office development for tenants of the Michoud Assembly Center, a New Orleans facility where NASA contractors build space vehicles, like the Space Launch System and Orion capsule. It will seek to bring in new partners from both the commercial and private sectors. LSU will be the administrator of the Space Campus, which will be located in a 50-acre plot near the heart of the 829-acre Michoud Assembly Facility. According to Fudickar, many of the buildings at Michoud date back to the 1940s, so the more modern Space Campus will likely be very appealing to companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin to move their offices to the Space Campus. Fudickar said the governor’s goal for the Space Campus is to expand job opportunities in the state and to increase Louisiana’s presence in the space industry, with $40 million being devoted to the Space Campus. The state, according to Fudickar, is set to cover half and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a nonprofit which seeks to further develop the state, will cover the other half of the price tag. (Source: LSU Reveille, 11/17/22) Previous