Fergie's Tech Blog

NASA Closes Johnson Space Center as Hurricane Approaches

Tarik Malik writes on Space.com:

NASA officials at the agency’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston closed the manned spaceflight facility Wednesday as Hurricane Rita approaches the Texas Gulf Coast.

The closure went into effect at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and will continue until the hurricane threat has passed, NASA officials said, adding that a small emergency crew will remain onsite. Primary mission operations of the International Space Station (ISS), now orbiting more than 200 miles above the Earth, will be handed over to Russian flight controllers while the JSC site is closed, they added.

“The emergency plan for the ISS mission control is well understood,” NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield told SPACE.com before the closure.

Hartsfield said that, once implemented, the transfer of mission operations from NASA ISS flight controllers to their Russian counterparts in Korolev, Russia near Moscow could continue through the evening.

“We also have an advisory team of flight controllers who will evacuate to a remote location and provide assistance,” he added.

posted by Fergie @ 9/21/2005 12:09:00 PM