tl;dr – Right off of none other than I-10.
The current International Space Station (ISS) is set to be decommissioned in 2030. In the future, we’ll see the era of commercial spa stations, as NASA awards contracts to private companies to develop their own commercial space stations in low-Earth orbit. One such company, Starlab Space, has contracted with Texas-based aerospace company Vivace to build its primary operating structure. Where is it being constructed? New Orleans.
Specifically, in New Orleans East, at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
If you’re familiar with the city, then you know that:
1) It’s pronounced ME-SHO…
…and that it sits right across the street from famed Vietnamese restaurant & bakery Dong Phoung, where several of the city’s prominent restaurants get their bread for Po Boys. Dong Phoung itself makes several tasty dishes, and its bahn-mi’s are solid.
As far as the space station itself is concerned, according to NOLA.com, “the aluminum-based station will be one of the largest structures ever developed for launch.”
Other companies vying for a piece of the pie include Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Axion Space.
If you’re a fan of ‘all things space’ and happen to be in the New Orleans area, you can check out Stennis Space Center just under an hour from the city, in coastal Mississippi. You can get a great free source that references Stennis, Dong Phoung, and tons of other great New Orleans recs here.
