MAF is one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world with 43 environmentally controlled acres—174,000 m2 (1,870,000 sq ft)—under one roof, and it employs more than 4,200 people.

The facility was referred to as Michoud (Factory) Airfield in the 1940s and briefly as a National Guard field in 1949, but became inactive by 1952.

[7] During the Korean War it made engines for Sherman and Patton tanks, and boasted a 1,700-metre (5,500 ft) paved runway.

[10] The factory is now the location for the Space Launch System (SLS)'s core and future second stage construction by Boeing.

All the buildings and the shuttle hardware within survived the hurricane without grave damage, but the roof of the main manufacturing building was breached and debris damaged ET-122 stored inside; that tank was refurbished and later flew on the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-134.

Thirty-eight NASA and Lockheed Martin employees stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina to operate the pumping systems, knowing that if not activated and sustained, the facility would have been destroyed.

The workers pumped more than one billion gallons (3,800,000 m3) of water out of the facility and probably were the reason that the rocket factory suffered very little damage.

[22] On September 16, 2005 NASA announced that the repairs were progressing faster than anticipated,[23] and so they would continue to use Michoud for external tank work.

Transporting vehicles carrying manufactured SLS components move down Saturn Blvd, past large open fields, to the pier - where the Pegasus Barge is docked.

Under the Obama administration, the Constellation Program was cancelled in 2010,[37] but was replaced with SLS a year later to continue space exploration efforts.

On May 24, 1988, TACA Flight 110 operated with a Boeing 737-300 jetliner made a successful emergency landing on a grassy levee in the Michoud grounds after power was lost in both engines during a severe thunderstorm.