South Bend manufacturing facility plays significant role in getting NASA to Mars

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Tested, proven and ready.

Those words from NASA representatives when describing the work performed by employees at Manufacturing Technology Incorporated.

The manufacturing facility is located just south of the South Bend International Airport on Sheridan Street.

On Monday, representatives from NASA came to town to thank Hoosiers for their hard work to help pull off the recent Artemis One mission that will one day lead to a mission to Mars.

The launch was just the first step in returning humans to the moon last November.

And who knew that one of the most important parts of the rocket is made right here in South Bend.

The injectors for the RS-25 engine take hydrogen from -423 degrees to a burning 6000 degrees Fahrenheit.

And Hoosiers' help made that possible.

This is one of the few locations on the planet that could even manufacture this critical part for RS-25 engine.

So much so, we were asked not to film the equipment used to manufacture the injectors.

South Bend sits on the top of a short list when it comes to aerospace engineering, which MTI has been a part of since 1981.

The company was essential in the success of the space shuttle program, which retired in 2011.

The Deputy Associate Administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, Amit Kshatriya, says the future looks bright for South Bend and MTI, and they will have a hand in the mission to Mars.

“We're leading the exploration of deep space, but also that we're figuring out the technologies, the time on systems, the reliability of those systems for what will eventually become a Mars mission and that those Mars missions, if we think going 250,000 miles to the lunar surface, it's hard when Mars is 10 times further than that,” said Kshatriya.