Hurricane Alert for the Kennedy Space Center

Insight on the News, Oct 16, 2000 by James Harder, J. Michael Waller

NASA officials are concerned about the ability of the Kennedy Space Center to withstand a direct hit by a hurricane, news alert! has learned. And a recent report commissioned by NASA says such a direct hit is not unlikely. "In conservative terms this means that in the next 25 years there is a significant chance (40 percent) for major damage to critical Shuttle assets due to hurricane," the report states.

A NASA spokesman tells news alert! that shuttle managers became concerned about the space center when Hurricane Floyd skirted the area last fall. Those concerns were heightened when it was learned that most of the critical ground facilities supporting the space-shuttle and International Space Station programs were designed in the 1960s and 1970s to withstand lower wind speeds than those anticipated had Floyd continued on course toward Kennedy Space Center.