With Hurricane Frances threatening Florida's east coast, the Kennedy Space Center will shut down Thursday to give workers a chance to prepare for the approaching storm.

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Frances on August 31 at 1:55 p.m. EDT. At the time this image was taken Frances was located about 140 miles north-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Maximum sustained winds were near 140 mph. Credit: NASA Download a larger version of the image here

NASA's three space shuttles, valued at more than $2 billion each, are housed in their hangars at the spaceport, mounted well off the floor on jacks as usual during processing. As a precaution, the landing gear have been raised, the payload bay doors closed and all three spacecraft have been powered down.

NASA spokesman George Diller said with wind damage and water intrusion major concerns, sandbags have been placed around the orbiter processing facilities and other key structures and plywood panels are being installed where possible to shore up windows and doors.

Normally, a 140-member team of senior managers, engineers and security personnel ride out hurricanes on site. But Diller said KSC managers are debating whether to employ a reduced rideout team or no team at all, depending on where Frances ultimately heads. A final planning meeting to assess the hurricane's path is scheduled for 7 a.m. Thursday.

At the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA's SWIFT astronomy satellite, currently in Hangar AE where it has been undergoing processing for an Oct. 7 launch, is being placed back in its transport container and may be moved to NASA's Space Station Processing Facility as a precaution. The processing facility, where major space station components are housed, was built to withstand sustained winds of 110 mph and peaks up to 132 mph.

Older facilities, built to hurricane standards in place at the time, have different ratings. The cavernous 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building, for example, was built to withstand sustained winds of 114 mph with gusts up to 125 mph. The adjacent Launch Control Center is rated the same, as is the Operations and Checkout Building in the KSC industrial area.

The Orbiter Processing Facility hangars where the shuttles Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis are housed, is rated for winds up to 105 mph. NASA's two shuttle launch pads were built to withstand sustained winds of 114 mph and gusts up to 125 mph. The major concern at the launch pads, Diller said, is damage to the massive rotating service structures, moveable gantries that butt up against a shuttle's cargo bay for payload installation.

Current hurricane standards in place at KSC call for new buildings to withstand 130 mph sustained winds with gusts to 135 mph. In its brush with Hurricane Charley, which passed well north of KSC last month, eight VAB side panels were damaged and water got into the building.

NASA currently plans to launch its first post-Columbia shuttle mission in early March. Many agency insiders believe that date already was all but impossible to meet because of technical issues associated with safety upgrades ordered in the wake of the Columbia disaster. But the potential impact of Hurricane Frances on spaceport infrastructure could make the March return-to-flight target date a moot point.

This map shows the National Hurricane Center's official forecast track for Hurricane Frances. Credit: NHC

The Air Force 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, a few miles south of Cocoa Beach, Fla., issued this advisory earlier today for Patrick and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station:

Special Hurricane Frances Statement from the 45th Weather Squadron

This weather statement is for the Patrick AFB and Cape Canaveral Spaceport community and is based upon the official National Hurricane Center forecast issued at 11AM on 1 September 2004. This information will be updated no later than 6PM on 1 September 2004.

Hurricane Frances is currently 730 miles southeast of PAFB/CCAFS. It is a Category 4 Hurricane with winds in excess of 120 knots (140 mph). It is moving northwest at 14 knots (16 mph) and in the general direction of the Florida central coast and PAFB/CCAFS. Given this movement, the closest point of approach to PAFB/CCAFS is currently forecast to be 38 miles southwest of PAFB/CCAFS on Saturday, 4 September at 11 AM. At that time, PAFB/CCAFS could experience wind speeds in excess of 100 knots (115 mph), heavy downpours, street flooding, hail, and isolated tornados. At landfall, this hurricane could produce a storm surge along the immediate coast in excess of 13 feet above normal tide level.

Future changes in strength, movement, and landfall will probably occur and are difficult to forecast. Please return to this site for future updates. For easier access, book mark this page as one of your favorites.

Last updated: 9/1/2004 11:00 AM.

Next update no later than 9/01/2004 at 6PM