Marshall Space Flight Center

The guest, the sort of subject matter guest, was the lead engineer for the Artemis program, NASA's Artemis program.

And he's based there in Madison, Alabama, where the Marshall Space Flight Center is.

And when we went to a Trash Pandas game, he gave us a tour of his facility and went to the game with us.

So I got to hang out with a lead engineer from the Marshall Space Flight Center and got to see sort of the inner workings of NASA, all because of this goofy podcast, Cody.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

Amy Eskridge is probably my favorite story because she left a video trail of breadcrumbs.

And essentially, she at one time had worked for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

OK, but as did her father.

But she had founded what she called the Institute for Exotic Propulsion.

And interestingly enough, he was burned to death in a Tesla charred beyond belief.

I don't think they were even able to make a positive ID on him.

He worked at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

So Amy Eskridge commits suicide in Huntsville.

But then that adds the complication that they were only planning three flights in this configuration, and so they have to get hardware for a fourth flight.

Now, the launch vehicle adapter and the Orion stage adapter that sit either side of this stage, those are both made at Marshall Space Flight Center.

And I know, as I understand it, they'd finished making them in 2024.

The production hardware has been idle maybe a year, but I'm sure it's possible for them to, you know, kick off another one of those.

So I started there in D.C., and I was actually there when Katrina hit in New Orleans, and we have the huge Michoud assembly facility down in New Orleans where we assemble SLS, and at the time it was the external tanks for the shuttle.

And so Marshall Space Flight Center, which runs Michoud, they called my program, and I was the program manager, and so I was down there eating MREs and sleeping on a blow-up mattress down at Michoud as we were getting ready to do the repairs for Michoud, and I just made a comment one day, you know, I'd I love working for the Corps, but maybe intelligence or NASA.

I'd be the only people I left.

Never thought that it would happen, that I'd always been a space geek.

And sure enough, opportunity came up, and I moved over to NASA.

I started working at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Then I started working with SLS.

I was the subsystem intertank manager and then worked for Exploration Upper Stage.

In April 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the creation of a National Space Agency, NASA would now become a reality, and von Braun lobbied hard to be at its heart.

By 1960, the former SS major was director of the newly inaugurated George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

Into our planning under the inspiring leadership of men like General J.B. Medeiros went the experience of Dr. Werner von Braun and others of the German scientists who had perfected the original B-bomb.

By 1961, after huge investment, NASA's new Saturn rocket, combined with the Mercury spacecraft, was ready for a human crew.

The two automakers jointly invested $2.3 billion to build the plant that has a combined capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year.

There are two assembly lines, one for each company, and since the plant is located not far from the Marshall Space Flight Center, the Toyota line is nicknamed Apollo, while the Mazda line has been dubbed Discovery.

Initial production was hampered by the COVID pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues, including the chip shortage.

Eventually, everything was sorted out and each of the lines is on track to produce near their respective capacities.