NASA Moves New Orleans, Mississippi Facilities to Stage Four of Coronavirus Outbreak Response, Halting SLS Testing Written 20 March 2020

Space News reports that on March 19, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine “announced that the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi will move to ‘Stage 4’ of its response framework for the coronavirus disease COVID-19.” This decision will halt “preparations for a major test of the” Space Launch System (SLS). All work “at a center effectively ends at Stage 4,” including work by mission-essential personnel. The “elevation of Michoud and Stennis to Stage 4 will strongly affect work on the Space Launch System and, to a lesser extent, the Orion spacecraft. The core stage for the first SLS mission was recently completed at Michoud, after extensive delays, and shipped to Stennis for testing leading up to a ‘Green Run’ static-fire test later this summer.” The move “will delay SLS testing at Stennis for an unknown period.”
Full Story (Space News)