Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:JEC) has been certified by NASA ready to assume operational management of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in eastern New Orleans. William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, signed the certification papers June 26 at MAF.
Jacobs was awarded the manufacturing support and facility operations contract (MSFOC) May 1. It officially took over the MSFOC from Lockheed Martin July 1, and will employ approximately 450 employees.
In making the announcement, Jacobs President and CEO Craig Martin stated, “The Michoud Assembly Facility has made major contributions to NASA’s space research and exploration programs, and it will be central to the success of human missions to the moon and Mars. We are excited about supporting NASA’s transformation of MAF into a multi-program, multi-prime facility and continuing our support to the U.S. space program.”
Jacobs will provide program management; safety, health and emergency management; integrated manufacturing support; maintenance; site services; site operations; logistics operations services; sustaining engineering; environmental services; and construction and indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity services to the facility.
MAF is a world-class manufacturing facility providing vital support to NASA’s Space Shuttle Program in the manufacture of the external tank. It has also been selected as the site to manufacture several major components for the Constellation Program.
With the shuttle program scheduled to retire next year, NASA is transitioning to the Constellation Program, which is developing new spacecraft – the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, and the Altair lunar lander – to transport humans to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond. NASA’s transition involves comprehensive and careful planning of simultaneous large-scale, interrelated spaceflight program activities.
In addition to NASA, other tenants located at MAF include the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Finance Center, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Integrated Support Command; and the University of New Orleans. NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility is one of the largest employers in New Orleans, with approximately 4,000 federal employees and contractors on site.
Jacobs, with annual revenues exceeding $12 billion, is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional, and construction services.
Any statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based on management’s current estimates and expectations, and currently available competitive, financial, and economic data, forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. We, therefore, caution the reader that there are a variety of factors that could cause business conditions and results to differ materially from what is contained in our forward-looking statements. For a description of some of the factors which may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements please refer to our 2008 Form 10-K, and in particular the discussions contained under Items 1 – Business, 1A – Risk Factors, 3 – Legal Proceedings, and 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. We also caution the readers of this release that we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made herein.
For additional information, contact:
Michelle Jones
626.578.6968
