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A tornado on Tuesday damaged the NASA facility in New Orleans where workers are building key components of the agency's new deep-space rocket. The twister touched down before noon and ripped holes in the roof and walls of the sprawling Michoud Assembly Facility. NASA employees and contractors there are building the huge hydrogen and oxygen fuel tanks for the heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System. A NASA statement said all personnel were accounted for. A damage assessment was underway late Tuesday afternoon.

Hurricane Katrina's devastating strike on New Orleans last fall highlighted shortcomings in the city's levee system. It also focused attention another long-term problem: The city and the region around it are sinking. New research suggests, however, that at least for nearby Michoud, La., the dominant driver pulling the region under may not be among the usual suspects: oil extraction, pumping groundwater to the surface, or diverting the Mississippi for navigation. Instead, the King of Slump may be a deep fault that cuts across southeastern Louisiana and under Michoud. During the 1970s, the fault appears to have contributed from 50 to...

NASA memo warns impact of Katrina, tank problems could be long lasting As NASA continues to assess the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the future of the shuttle program, at least one official is warning it could take up to a year before the next flight takes off.

Michoud, Michoud, Nichoud. You will learn that name like you did with Martin Marrietta as it relates to Challenger. This can be a very confusing issue to undestand. If you have a question, I will be happy to answer it, but if you are confused about something I wrote, Please ask me about it, and I will clarify the context for you. Thanks. I have been working on this since yesterday morning. I am just linking my discussions on other boards so that you can see what I have found. Others have contributed to these findings, so you have to...