NASA Watching Hurricane Ivan

NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., and the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, are getting ready to ride out the storm, and workers there have been sent home to make preparations. Other NASA installations, from Johnson Space Center, Houston, to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are keeping a wary eye on Ivan's track.

Image above: This image of the eye of Hurricane Ivan, one of the strongest hurricanes on record, was taken Saturday, Sept. 11, from an altitude of about 230 miles by Astronaut Mike Fincke on the International Space Station. Click on image to enlarge. Photo Credit: NASA.

Current forecasts have Ivan making landfall along the Gulf Coast early Thursday morning. Please visit the National Hurricane Center for the latest forecasts and tracks.

At Stennis, where Space Shuttle engines are tested before flight, workers were sent home this afternoon to prepare for the storm with their families. A team of essential personnel plans to ride out the storm. Two flight-qualified Space Shuttle Main Engines at Stennis were secured; one was put back into its container, and the other was wrapped in plastic. Two developmental engines were enclosed on their test stands and protected.

"We really saw our readiness for hurricanes Charley and Frances pay off," said William Readdy, NASA's associate administrator for space operations. "KSC was in the path of those two strong storms, and while some of our buildings were damaged, we made sure our workforce was safe and had no injuries. We were also able to protect our three Space Shuttles, our International Space Station components, and other key hardware. Ivan looks like it may be an even more powerful storm, so it's important that we do everything we can to prepare our people and our facilities."

A ride-out team will remain in place through the storm also at Michoud, across the Mississippi-Louisiana border from Stennis. Lockheed Martin and NASA workers were dismissed this morning to make preparations at home. The large Space Shuttle external fuel tanks manufactured and assembled at Michoud, NASA facility operated by Lockheed-Martin facility, have been secured. Equipment has been moved indoors, facilities have been sandbagged, and important materials -- such as insulating foam and adhesive -- have been loaded onto trucks to be transported out of the area, if necessary.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, located well inland in Huntsville, Ala., is taking normal precautions and making preparations for possible tornados and other effects from Ivan.

Source: NASA