Posted on 09/06/2004 1:37:57 PM PDT by anymouse
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Hurricane Frances did more damage to the Kennedy Space Center than any other storm in history, tearing an estimated 1,000 exterior panels from a giant building where space vehicles are assembled, officials said Monday.
No space shuttles were inside the 525-foot-high building, a familiar landmark at the space center. But center director James Kennedy said he feared the damage could set back NASA's effort to resume shuttle launches next spring.
Monday marked the first time anyone from NASA had seen the damage from the storm because the agency completely evacuated the space center — the first time NASA made such a move.
The holes left by the missing panels created 40,000 square feet of "open window" on two sides of the building, Kennedy said. Each panel measures 4 feet by 10 feet.
Kennedy said it was too soon to provide a dollar figure for all the damage. Hurricane Charley three weeks earlier caused $700,000 worth of damage, and this will be "significantly more," he noted.
But Kennedy expressed relief that the space center had been spared a direct hit by a storm that was once a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph.
The storm made landfall early Sunday at Sewall's Point, some 100 miles south of the space center. The facility endured sustained winds of more than 70 mph, and gusts reached 94 mph at the peak of the storm, Kennedy told reporters in a telephone conference from Crystal City, Va.
Nonetheless, the initial feeling of the 200 employees inside the space center Monday was "that we had dodged a big bullet," Kennedy said.
"I was significantly worried about the future of human space flight based upon that doomsday scenario" of a direct hit by a hurricane with at least Category 4 force, Kennedy said.
Kennedy is especially worried about Hurricane Ivan out in the Atlantic. His emergency team inside the space center already has warned him that temporary repairs to the assembly building may not be possible in time for Ivan.
Monday's preliminary look indicates that the shuttle hangars and the spaceships themselves, grounded since last year's Columbia disaster, were not damaged at all, Kennedy said. Neither was the building that houses all the international space station parts awaiting launch.
Workers had yet to inspect the two shuttle launch pads, located right on the beach.
But in a potential blow to NASA's return-to-flight effort, part of the roof came off the building where the shuttles' thermal tiles are made. The silica glass fiber tiles cover much of the exterior of each spaceship and protect against the heat of re-entry. There was extensive water damage inside that structure, Kennedy said.
Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building were two shuttle external fuel tanks, which hopefully were protected from the rain, Kennedy said.
The Vehicle Assembly Building was built to accommodate the giant Apollo rocketships that carried men to the moon. Construction began in 1963. Although the building was designed to withstand sustained wind of 114 mph and gusts of up to 125 mph, it had begun to deteriorate in places during the 1990s, especially the roof.
The space center — most of it still without power and phone service — remained evacuated except for the emergency inspection team, and the other 14,000 employees were urged to stay home on Tuesday, too. The center was closed Thursday.
Kennedy is especially worried about Hurricane Ivan out in the Atlantic. His emergency team inside the space center already has warned him that temporary repairs to the assembly building may not be possible in time for Ivan.
But in a potential blow to NASA's return-to-flight effort, part of the roof came off the building where the shuttles' thermal tiles are made. The silica glass fiber tiles cover much of the exterior of each spaceship and protect against the heat of re-entry. There was extensive water damage inside that structure, Kennedy said.
Houston, we've got a problem.
Soggy space ping.
I am shocked and outraged to learn that France has damaged the NASA Space Center. Maybe John Kerry doesn't think it's a big deal that this former "ally" would attack the heart of our space program, but I certainly do. I say it's high time that these cheese-eating, disloyal, Saddam-loving bunch of . . .
What? It's not France? It's Hurricane Frances? Never mind.
Despite the time and the ability to move some, if not all, of the shuttle fleet to safety, they left all af the fleet in the projected path of the storm.
It appears that some at NASA want to end the shuttle program.
> It appears that some at NASA want to end the shuttle program.
Wouldn't you? Shuttle is a disaster.
The shuttle is an amazing piece of machinery for its age, although it never performed up to its pre-launch hype. Both shuttle crashes were caused by failures of external components. Compared to Mercury (2 major equipment failures in 6 manned launches) and Apollo (two major failures in just over a score of launches), the program has been sucessful.
> Compared to Mercury (2 major equipment failures in 6 manned launches) and Apollo (two major failures in just over a score of launches), the program has been sucessful.
Innappropriate comparison. Compare Shuttle to what it was *supposed* to be: $50,000,000 per launch, of which there would be about 50 per year, and retired by the end of the '90's when replaced with an even more capable and economic system. Staggering failure by that light.
Some do. The Space Shuttle program should end immediately. Would a NASA employee deliberately leave shuttle tiles out in the rain? Not likely.
...."Monday marked the first time anyone from NASA had seen the damage from the storm because the agency completely evacuated the space center "........
Sure, I always leave my home that's worth about $300 billion totally without security or TV closed circuitry, send everybody home to bake cookies before the power goes out.
These idoits have gotta learn the proper security ropes from the folks at Los Alamos!
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