Kennedy Space Center Hurricane Update

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) entered Hurcon IV this morning (50 knot winds expected within 72 hours) and our Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team is working our preparations in line with our hurricane plans. Our preparations are all on schedule at this time. We are readying shutters, gassing up government vehicles, and notifying employees to begin making preparations at home for a hurricane.

KSC is scheduled to close at 6 p.m. on Saturday (Aug. 31) with the current forecast track. That could change if the storm slows.

A Ride Out Team between 100-120 people will stay behind at the Launch Control Center (LCC) where our emergency operations center is housed to monitor the storms effects and conduct an initial safety inspection after the storm passes. This building is certified to handle a Category 5 hurricane.

After careful evaluation of the latest storm track and projected intensity, the Exploration Ground Systems program made the decision to roll the mobile launcher (Artemis ground support equipment) back from Pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). First motion is expected early Friday morning. We will continue to monitor the weather throughout the preparations and roll operations and should there be a significant change, our team will be poised to adjust. In its final phases of development, the mobile launcher stands nearly 400 feet tall and is needed to assemble, process and launch NASA's powerful Space Launch Rocket and Orion spacecraft on missions to the Moon and Mars.

The VAB can withstand winds around 125 miles per hour. We have data that shows with the past two storms (Matthew and Irma), it saw 100-110mph+ gusts and had minor, if any, damage.

Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views August 30 of rapidly intensifying Hurricane Dorian at 12:18 p.m. Eastern time as it churned over the Atlantic Ocean. The storm, which is moving to the northwest, is forecast by the National Hurricane Center to approach the east coast of Florida Monday evening (Sept. 2) as a likely category 4 hurricane.

Kennedy Space Center Hurricane Update

While the storm is forecast to be 17 nautical miles to the east of Kennedy Space Center (KSC), we are still in the path of hurricane force winds.

Kennedy Space Center remains at HURCON III, but will likely upgrade to 2/1 starting Monday morning. At this time, the center is slated to close Monday, with the rideout team coming in Monday morning.

The mobile launcher and crawler-transporter 2 that will be used for the Artemis program are buttoned up inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Final preparations around the center are complete.

The Visitor Complex hurricane preparations will be completed Saturday night after they close normal operations and will remain closed Sunday through the duration of the storm.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to Re-Open

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will remain closed Wednesday, September 4 and Thursday, September 5, and will re-open to guests Friday, September 6, 2019, as the threat from Hurricane Dorian passes.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be operational on Friday, September 6, including the Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Dine With An Astronaut, Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, Astronaut Encounter, 3D space films, Journey to Mars: Explorers Wanted and more.

The total destruction of many homes and infrastructure, including airports, will take many years to recover from.

It is amazing how space based technology can model the track map of so much energy found within a category 5 hurricane, and provide advanced warning to people in its path with such precision.

Mobile Launcher Rolls Back to Pad 39B After Hurricane Dorian

NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) will return the mobile launcher to Launch Pad 39B on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. The nearly 400-foot-tall structure was taken to the Vehicle Assembly Building for safekeeping on Aug. 30 in advance of Hurricane Dorian. The mobile launcher is rated to withstand 110 mph winds.

Beginning after 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, the crawler-transporter 2 will lift the mobile launcher and make the approximately eight-hour, 4-mile trek to the pad where teams will complete testing and checkout on the launcher in the coming weeks for the Artemis 1 mission.

Before the storm, 80% of the validation and verification testing with the pad and launcher were complete, and EGS does not expect any significant impacts to their upcoming test schedules due to the hurricane.