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Cape spaceport braces for Hurricane Jeanne BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 25, 2004 A 206-member "rideout" team is on station at the Kennedy Space Center, braced for the onslaught of Hurricane Jeanne and hoping for a slight change in the storm's predicted track. NASA spokesman George Diller, riding out the storm in NASA's Emergency Operations Center on the second floor of the Launch Control Center, said Air Force and space agency forecasters are expecting the hurricane to generate sustained winds of 75 mph with gusts to 100 mph for five hours Sunday as Jeanne moves across central Florida to the southwest. "We're hoping that somehow we're going to get a break," Diller said in a telephone interview. "We're hoping that by the time this hits shore we'll see a path that slightly different from what they're giving us. We know we're going to get damage. It's just a question of how bad it's going to be. ... We just didn't have enough time to do much mitigation." He was referring to damage caused by Hurricane Frances, which blew away thousands of sidewall panels from the Vehicle Assembly Building and destroyed part of the roof of a critical heat-shield tile and thermal blanket production facility. All told, Frances caused more than $100 million in damage. The Vehicle Assembly Building, where space shuttles are attached to their boosters and external fuel tanks prior to launch, is a 525-foot-tall cube, one of the largest buildings on Florida's east coast and a critical facility in NASA's return-to-flight plans. Many gaping holes in the building's skin remain from Frances and engineers fear wind and rain from Jeanne will make a bad situation even worse. "The VAB lost nearly 850 aluminum panels (14 feet by 6 feet each) on the exterior of the building, leaving approximately 20 percent of the interior open to outside conditions," NASA reported in a Sept. 16 statement. "The roof of the VAB also saw considerable damage. There was no damage to the two external tanks stored inside, or to the Columbia debris which is housed on the 16th floor of the A tower." Diller said spaceport workers shored up the three Orbiter Processing Facilities, where NASA's space shuttles are housed, with sandbags. The shuttles are powered down and mounted on massive jacks, with their landing gear stowed and their cargo bay doors closed. NASA forecasters believe the Kennedy Space Center is right on the boundary between category 1 and category 2 winds, depending on where Hurricane Jeanne actually makes landfall. They are expecting at least five hours of sustained 75-mph winds Sunday, with gusts to 100 mph. Winds are not expected to drop below 50 mph until 9 a.m. Sunday. But inspection teams will not be allowed to venture outside until winds remain below 40 mph for two full hours. |
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The three men to launch aboard the next Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station -- Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao, flight engineer Salizhan Sharipov and Russian taxi cosmonaut Yuri Shargin -- hold a pre-flight news conference near Moscow on Sept. 23. (43min 05sec file)
Former International Space Station commander Mike Foale radioed current ISS science officer Mike Fincke on Sept. 22 to discuss actvities and work aboard the outpost. (5min 01sec file)
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The International Space Station's Expedition 9 crew hold an educational talk with students and members of the National Guard Bureau in Charleston, West Virginia. (19min 53sec file)