From MAF to Mars! Have you ever heard of "MAF”? Have or have not, you’ll be hearing about it frequently as NASA’s Space Launch System rocket continues to take shape in preparation of its first flight. NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in eastern New Orleans is where the core stages of the Space Launch System deep space exploration vehicle are in the process of being built. It is also where manufacturing and assembly of the Orion spacecraft took place before Orion went on to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for final assembly. MAF is a world-class manufacturing facility providing vital support to NASA exploration and discovery missions and is owned and managed for the agency by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It is unique in that it contains one of the largest production buildings in the nation. Its vertical assembly building proved a critical resource for stacking components of the space shuttle external tank, which was constructed, tested and delivered to Kennedy Space Center b...