{"id":14350,"date":"2017-09-07T20:59:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T12:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/kennedy-space-center-braces-for-hurricane-irma\/"},"modified":"2017-09-07T20:59:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T12:59:53","slug":"kennedy-space-center-braces-for-hurricane-irma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/kennedy-space-center-braces-for-hurricane-irma\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Space Center braces for Hurricane Irma"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

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An aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building and surrounding facilities, including the Space Launch System\u2019s mobile launch platform. Credit: NASA\/KSC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With an eye on fast-moving Hurricane Irma, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Thursday while NASA and contractor personnel rushed to prepare the sprawling spaceport for extreme winds, torrential rain and a threatening storm surge.<\/p>\n

Using historic pad 39A, SpaceX launched an Air Force X-37B spaceplane<\/span> on time at 10 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), taking advantage of a relatively clear morning sky. Had the weather or some other problem prevented launch, the rocket and its Air Force payload would have been hauled back to a hangar to ride out the approaching storm.<\/p>\n

Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana said the NASA spaceport will be closed Friday through Monday except for a few essential work crews Friday and a \u201crideout\u201d team of 130 to 140 people that will remain on site at the Launch Control Center through the weekend to monitor critical equipment and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about the health and welfare of the Kennedy workforce,\u201d Cabana said in an interview with CBS News. \u201cGetting everybody out of here tonight, and essential personnel tomorrow, allows the KSC team to make sure their homes and families are safe. So, big storm coming our way, and we\u2019re going to be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar preparations were underway at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.<\/p>\n

Schools across Brevard County were closed Thursday until further notice and the state ordered mandatory evacuations of barrier islands along Florida\u2019s \u201cSpace Coast,\u201d including Merritt Island where the space center is located, effective Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

The National Hurricane Center expects Hurricane Irma to sweep up Florida\u2019s east coast this weekend, passing directly over or close to the Kennedy Space Center overnight Saturday. The spaceport faced a similar threat last October from Hurricane Matthew, but the storm veered slightly east before reaching Cape Canaveral, and the dangerous eye passed by well offshore.<\/p>\n

Even so, Matthew caused major damage at the spaceport, showing managers areas where improvements were needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly got us up to date on all our hurricane procedures,\u201d Cabana said. \u201cWe learned a few lessons from it that we\u2019ve applied to make sure we\u2019re even better prepared for this one. \u2026 The latest weather brief that we\u2019ve gotten shows it hasn\u2019t made up its mind yet, but it\u2019s coming our way, whether it goes right over or slightly to the east or west of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, the cavernous structure where Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles were once assembled, was designed in the 1960s to withstand hurricane-force winds and Cabana said he believes it will weather Irma without any major problems.<\/p>\n

Parked nearby is a new mobile launch platform being built to haul NASA\u2019s new Space Launch System rockets from the VAB to launch complex 39B where they eventually will be fired off on deep space voyages to the moon and beyond. The mobile launch tower is 40 feet square, 335 feet tall and weighs nearly seven million pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my biggest concerns this year is all the construction we have going on, specifically at the mobile launcher, installing all the systems in it,\u201d Cabana said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of loose equipment out there we had to make sure was secured. Folks got a good start on that yesterday, so we\u2019ll have everything secured (in time).<\/p>\n

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Hurricane Irma\u2019s forecast track, as of 11 p.m. EDT Thursday. Credit: National Hurricane Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Out at pad 39B, workers rushed to finish on-going work installing a massive deflector in the \u201cflame trench\u201d where the SLS rocket\u2019s exhaust will be diverted to each side during the initial moments of flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got that all secured,\u201d Cabana said. \u201cThe other major area that needed to be thoroughly secured was the Launch Environment Test Facility where we have some critical swing arms and umbilicals that are in test to be installed on the mobile launcher. That all was being worked on yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pad 39B and 39A, now operated by SpaceX, are both just a few hundred yards from the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters expect a five- to seven-foot storm surge that could cause problems for pad systems.<\/p>\n

Critical systems at the space center have generator backup power and the rideout team will monitor them throughout the weekend. Monday afternoon, after tropical storm force winds subside, damage assessment teams will swing into action.<\/p>\n

Cabana said one KSC office building that suffered roof leaks and water damage in the wake of Hurricane Matthew had only recently been repaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, we won\u2019t have any more roof leaks,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody just got back into their offices here about a month and a half ago. I\u2019d sure hate to see that happen again. Hopefully, the repairs to the roof will withstand Irma.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION An aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building and surrounding facilities, including the Space Launch System\u2019s mobile launch platform. Credit: NASA\/KSC With an eye on fast-moving Hurricane Irma, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Thursday while NASA and contractor personnel rushed to prepare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2105,3190,428,650],"class_list":["post-14350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hurricane","tag-hurricane-irma","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}