Posted on 09/02/2004 8:53:46 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
Sept. 1, 2004 —NASA may soon have to deal with a new set of problems in its tedious, time-consuming and expensive quest to return the space shuttles to flight: the aftermath of Hurricane Frances.
With the three remaining space shuttles, the dozens of unique space station components and modules and billions of dollars worth of launch facilities and assembly hangars, the Kennedy Space Center sits uncomfortably close to the predicted path for Hurricane Frances, a Category Four storm barreling toward Florida's east coast.
The space center has never experienced a direct hit by a hurricane, though there have been a few close calls. The outlook for another miss is looking bleak.
Even if the immediate area is spared the brunt of the storm's 140 mph winds — if it's still such a strong storm when it comes ashore — most forecasts predict Frances will blast through Brevard County, passing to the west of Kennedy Space Center and leaving in its wake dangerous conditions for a tidal surge.
The space center sits on a narrow piece of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Typically during hurricanes and tropical storms, NASA assigns about 140 people to remain onsite at the space center to keep watch over the equipment and respond to any emergencies. This time, however, NASA is considering leaving only about 12 people in an emergency operations center with limited ability to command and control equipment.
"We may not even do that," added NASA spokesman George Diller.
Among the most vulnerable structures is the roof on the Orbiter Processing Facility, which is housing NASA's three orbiters — Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour. The building was constructed during the Apollo era and has a roof designed to withstand 105 mph winds, Diller said.
Even newer facilities are at risk. The immense hangar where the space station components are tested and stored prior to launch is designed to withstand 110 mph winds.
"The original decision to locate the Apollo facility on Merritt Island was a gamble with the weather and so far, if NASA was the house, the house has won. But the nature of gambling is sometimes the house loses," said John Logsdon, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and the head of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
"All you can do is cross your fingers," he added.
The hurricane approaches as NASA strives to resume shuttle flights in March 2005 following the Feb. 1, 2003, loss of shuttle Columbia and its seven crewmembers. The agency expects to spend more than $1 billion on equipment upgrades and modifications to the fleet and support equipment.
Many of the structures at KSC are unique, such as the launch pad Rotating Service Structure, which wraps around a shuttle at the pad to protect the orbiter and provide access into the vehicle. The launch pads are designed to withstand 125 mph winds.
"If there were serious damage to one or two of the orbiters or the facilities needed to process and launch the orbiters, I think it would raise a very large question about the continuation of the shuttle program," Logsdon said.
Added Diller, "There is nothing we can do until after the storm and see what damage we got."
Big ships go out to sea to ride out storms. I think they should immediately launch the three remaining shuttles and have them set up a "Beta site" where they will be safe from the Hurricane, and any invading space aliens that might want to capitalize on a disruption in NASA operations.
They have time to ferry at least one of the shuttles to California. If they had decent management in place, they could have gotten two of them out of there.
Seriously, how long could it take to move one of the orbiters onto the transport aircraft? They've known Frances was a near-certainty to hit Florida for days now.
And then there's this talk of damage to the launch pad and other structures. Why don't we have a small facility elsewhere in the country that's capable of a Shuttle launch? It certainly seems as if Cape Canaveral puts a lot of our manned space program's infrastructure eggs in one basket.
We do Or did. The Vandenberg shuttle launch facility was closed down after Challenger, the east coast of Florida apparently being more expendable than "sacred" indian wastelands in California.
"The extensive construction plans brought considerable protests from local Chumash Native American activists, who believe that stretch of the coast is sacred and the gateway to the afterlife.... The first Vandenberg Space Shuttle launch was scheduled for 1986, but after the Challenger disaster the facility was placed in hibernation and then closed again, after the expenditure of billions of dollars. Rumors persisted that the site had been cursed by the Indians"
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