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NASA has announced that the Johnson Space Centre, closed due to the threat of Hurricane Ike, will likely remain out of action for normal operations until September 21, according to an agency release.
Img: Hurricane Ike, downgraded to a tropical depression. Credit: NOAA
"There are a lot of things around the center that need to be shored up before we can welcome back the work force," said NASA spokesman Mike Curie.
As covered here in The Tech Herald, NASA closed Mission Control at the Space Centre in Houston, Texas, last week as Ike's threat became more apparent, duly moving critical mission staff to nearby secondary facilities in Austin, Texas and Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA has advised that recovery teams will be in operation over the next week cleaning up the site and restoring phone and power with Johnson not expected to re-open until September 21.
"The 65-member team that rode out Hurricane Ike at Johnson has begun to transition to recovery operations, cleaning up debris, restoring power and other centre facilities and infrastructure," said NASA in a statement.
A damage assessment team has determined that the Sonny Carter Training Facility near the Johnson Space Centre appears to have escaped unharmed from the hurricane, NASA continued.
Though the space agency has outlined that it is too early to say if flights will be disrupted, experts are predicting the next two Shuttle launches will face possible delays.
The first, an October 10 launch of Atlantis to service the Hubble space telescope for the last time, will face timetable difficulties reaching its schedule. The second, a November 12 launch of an outfitting mission to the International Space Station, has a deadline of November 25.
After that date the ISS would not be able to generate enough power from the sun in order to support such a docking.
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