Today I had some meetings at and took a tour of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). This is where Lockheed Martin makes the External Tank (ET) for the space shuttle. Basically all the pieces get shipped here and are then welded and bolted together before being placed on a boat and sent over to the Cape. The facility is huge and it was really cool to see some of the enormous tooling made just to manufacture ETs. Of course this means a lot of these tools are nearing the end of the their lives as there are only a handful of tanks left to be manufactured as the shuttle program is winding down fast.