With Hurricane Ike bearing down on the coast of Texas, NASA managers today activated a rudimentary mission control center near Austin and ordered agency and contractor employees to evacuate the Johnson Space Center. A program-level flight readiness review for the next shuttle mission - a flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope - was delayed to next week.

As of this writing, it is not yet known what impact, if any, the hurricane might have on NASA's plans to launch the shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 10. Based on the 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, the center of the projected cone showing where Ike might ultimately go passes within about 40 miles of the Johnson Space Center.

A rideout team plans to be in place inside mission control throughout the storm. Critical computer and communications systems will remained powered up as long as possible and the team is prepared to safely shut them down if required. NASA training jets at nearby Ellington Field have been flown to El Paso, Texas.

Ike has already had an impact on space station operations. Early today, U.S. flight control switched from Johnson to a hotel near Austin, Texas. Using laptop computers with secure, high-speed internet connectivity, Johnson flight controllers, working around the clock in three shifts, are staying in contact with the space station and monitoring critical systems.

Another team of flight controllers will be stationed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to take over if the Johnson Space Center loses power and the ability to relay communications to and from the backup center near Austin.

But some systems cannot be commanded from the backup control center, including precision control of solar array orientation. Such control is needed to "feather" the arrays before visiting spacecraft can dock to prevent contamination by rocket exhaust plumes. As a result, Russian space program officials may have to delay Friday's planned docking of an unmanned Progress supply ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday.

At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meanwhile, engineers moved the space shuttle Endeavour from its processing hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building early today for attachment to an external tank and boosters. If all goes well, Endeavour will be hauled to pad 39B before dawn on Sept. 18. It will be the first time since July 2001 that NASA has had two shuttles on its two launch pads at the same time.

The Hubble crew, launching from pad 39A, cannot seek safe haven aboard the international space station if a major problem prevents a safe re-entry. As a result, Endeavour is being prepped for a quick-response rescue mission if necessary. If no such mission is needed, Endeavour will be moved to pad 39A and prepped for launch Nov. 12 on a space station assesmbly flight.