NASA says lack of trained New Orleans workers led to issues with Boeing Artemis rocket program

An undertrained and inexperienced workforce at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is a key reason for a "degraded state" of quality control on the Artemis project that's set to send astronauts to the Moon and then Mars in coming decades, according to the space agency's internal watchdog.

In a scathing report issued Thursday, NASA's Office of Inspector General cited rocket maker Boeing, which employs more than 1,000 people at Michoud, for dozens of problems on its Space Launch System rockets that are being assembled there.

An upgraded version of the SLS rocket is more than seven years behind schedule and $1 billion over budget, and federal monitors found 71 problems on the Michoud-based project ranging from minor to potentially serious.

“This is a high number…for a space flight system at this stage in development and reflects a recurring and degraded state of product quality control,” said the report, which covered a two-year period from 2021 through 2023.

Economic development leaders have long touted the Artemis program as one of the New Orleans area's bright spots. But the report said the problems at Michoud are largely due to a “lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing,” which it said was “in part due to Michoud’s geographical location in New Orleans and lower employee compensation relative to other aerospace competitors.”

Boeing declined to comment on the report, referring questions to NASA. NASA did not respond to a request for comment but included its response to the findings in the audit, which includes a plan to require Boeing to implement more rigorous training standards.

GNO Inc. President and CEO Michael Hecht, whose economic development organization has made diversifying the economy a key priority, said that the Michoud facility "has been building the most sophisticated rockets in the world for over five decades," and noted that many of the facility's engineers and employees have trained locally at LSU, UNO and Nunez Community College's Aerospace Technician Program.

"The cultural appeal of Greater New Orleans, combined with our legacy of aerospace manufacture, makes us a highly desirable location for space tech workers," Hecht said in a prepared statement. 

The Artemis program

The Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East has been a key cog in NASA's rocket programs since the Apollo rockets were built there in the 1960s. 

NASA’s Artemis program SLS rockets have been in development at the 43-acre complex for nearly a decade. An earlier version of the SLS rocket that powered Artemis I was built at Michoud and successfully launched in 2022, traveling 280,000 miles into space without a crew.

Problems cited in the audit have to do with the development of the upgraded version of the SLS rocket that was originally slated to be launched in 2021 now isn't expected to be ready until the Artemis IV mission, now scheduled for mid-2028. 

The report does not blame the delays and cost overruns entirely on the quality and workforce issues at Michoud. They were cited by federal monitors as among several problems plaguing this particular aspect of the rocket program.

Deficiencies and potential danger

Of the 71 problems cited in the report, 47 were considered minor. The other 24 were more concerning. In one instance, inspectors found debris — Teflon or metal shavings — inside a rocket liquid hydrogen fuel tank, “which can damage hardware and potentially injure flight crew,” the report said.

In another example, inspectors noted a liquid oxygen fuel tank dome, which is a critical component of the SLS rocket, that had not been welded properly and “did not meet NASA specifications.” 

The report says the welding issues arose due to Boeing’s “inexperienced technicians and inadequate work order planning and supervision” and ultimately caused a seven-month delay in the program.

“Moreover, quality control deficiencies, if not identified and corrected, could increase safety risk to the integrated spacecraft,” the report said.

The problems were identified by 30 third-party monitors that NASA employs to oversee Boeing’s operations at the facility.

Boeing has been beset by a number of issues in recent years, notably problems with the quality and safety of its popular 737 jetliners. Earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted the airline for failing to catch production errors that led the door of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX to fall off in mid flight. The FAA is also conducting more unannounced visits to Boeing facilities. An investigation into the manufacturer is not expected to conclude until 2025, the NTSB said earlier this week. 

Boeing laid off an unspecified number of employees at Michoud, as well as at other facilities around the country, earlier this year in response to delays with the Artemis program. The audit report covers a period that ended months before the layoffs went into effect.