Hurricane headed toward Mission Control

The latest projected path for Hurricane Ike forecasts an ever-closer pass by NASA's Johnson Space Center and the Mission Control Center where International Space Station and space shuttle operations are carried out.

The projected path released at 5 p.m. EDT moves slightly east of JSC -- a mere 1.5 miles from the headquarters building at NASA's Texas field center. Click to enlarge and save the Google Earth view of the area with the projected path laid out on it.

The thin white line shows the projected path. The line that runs perpendicular to it shows the proximity of the path to Building 1 at JSC. Note how close JSC is to Clear Lake, a large body of water that connects with Galveston Bay about three miles from the space center. The area stands to be swamped with a wall of water when Ike passes on Saturday.

Thanks again to Bill Harwood of CBS News for the image.

As of 5 p.m. EDT, the Associated Press reported, Ike was centered about 135 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 12 mph. It was a Category 2 storm, with winds of 105 mph, but was expected to strengthen to a Category 3, or at least 111 mph, by the time it hit land.

Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston late tonight or early Saturday and pass almost directly over Houston.

The size of the hurricane, coupled with the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, together create a significant probability of potentially devastating flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high -- 20 to 25 feet -- at the coastline.

NASA shut down JSC and Mission Control Thursday as Ike approached the Gulf coast. NASA activated back-up control centers near Austin, Texas, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Limited command-and-control capabilities at both back-up sites prompted NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency to delay the scheduled docking tonight of a robotic Russian cargo carrier launched Wednesday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Plans now call for the Progress space freighter will loiter in an orbit near the outpost and dock at the station next Wednesday.

NOTE ON IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the Google Earth image of the Johnson Space area with the projected path of hurricane Ike laid down upon it. You can also click to enlarge and save a National Hurricane Center map showing the projected path of Ike over the next three days.