Sept. 2, 2005— Along with thousands of Gulf Coast residents and businesses reeling from Hurricane Katrina's deadly assault, NASA is taking stock of its shuttle fuel tank production facility near New Orleans, as well as a shuttle engine test center in Mississippi.

Both facilities survived the hurricane relatively intact, though it will be some time before anything approaching normal operations can resume.

At the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, eight shuttle fuel tanks in various stages of completion appeared undamaged, though thorough inspections have not yet begun.

The plant, which has been the focus of NASA's efforts to redesign the shuttle fuel tank following the 2003 Columbia accident, remains inaccessible except by air or boat.

Columbia was lost due to a piece of falling debris from the shuttle's tank that damaged the ship during launch. Seven astronauts aboard died during an attempted landing 16 days later.

Officials estimate more than half of the 2,400 employees who work at Michoud lost their homes.

"We're still working to get in contact with our people," said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.

The agency acknowledges that the hurricane will affect plans to launch its second post-Columbia mission in March. For the immediate future, however, NASA is supporting emergency relief efforts and making sure dislocated workers receive their pay, Beutel said.

Meanwhile, the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where the shuttle rocket engines are tested, is serving as a command center for federal relief efforts, as well as a temporary evacuation shelter for residents left homeless by the hurricane.

Managers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as well as Alabama's Marshall Space Flight Center, have begun inventorying their resources for possible relocation of the shuttle fuel tank repair work.

"The program is being logical and looking at what can be done," Beutel said.

At the Florida spaceport, a shuttle fuel tank that had been on a barge to be returned to Michoud for additional work is being returned for storage, said KSC spokeswoman Jessica Rye.

Atlantis, which NASA originally had planned to launch this month, was removed from its tank and twin solid rocket boosters on Thursday.

Managers had postponed the flight to March after Discovery's tank shed large pieces of insulating foam during launch July 26 on the agency's first mission since the Columbia accident.

Without power, communications, transportation and its work force at the key tank manufacturing plant, additional delays are expected.

"We know there is going to be a schedule impact," Beutel. "We don't know what that's going to be yet."