Recovery from Ike likely to stall launches

NASA is starting what will be a slow recovery from Hurricane Ike at the Houston home of the Mission Control Center and the agency's next two shuttle flights face delays as a result.

The expectation is that Johnson Space Center will remain closed for a week while a relatively small NASA recovery team restores power, phone service and other utilities around the center and surrounding communities struggle to recover from a monster storm that left the city of Houston without power.

"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.

JSC employs about 15,000: 12,000 contractors and 3,000 civil servants.

Just outside the gates to the center the small city of Seabrook was likened to a disaster area with no power, no sewer service and no passable roadways. Residents attempting to return after the storm were turned away by community safety officers.

A weeklong curfew was imposed in the Houston area due to the widespread loss of power and pooled water that is making it difficult to drive.

A 65-member ride-out crew at JSC mopped up after the roof of Building 30 -- which houses the Mission Control Center -- was damaged during the storm. Water still is standing in some areas at the center, particularly those close to Clear Lake, a large body of water that connects to Galveston Bay three miles from JSC.

The recovery team at JSC expects to switch from emergency generator power back to commercial power later today. But power at surrounding municipalties must be restored before water can be pumped from swamped areas of the center.

Team members dispatched to the Sonny Carter Neutral Bouyancy Laboratory several miles north of the center found no major damage at NASA's spacewalk training center.

The closure of JSC for a week will make it difficult for NASA to maintain a tight schedule for the planned Oct. 10 launch of Atlantis on a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and the Nov. 12 launch of an International Space Station outfitting mission. Astronaut and flight control training for both missions will be stalled until the center reopens for normal operations -- a milestone now targeted for the week of Sept. 21.

The second mission faces a Nov. 25 launch deadline. The sun angle on the station from Nov. 26 through Dec. 17 will be such that the outpost would not be able to generate enough power, or dispel enough heat, to support a docked shuttle mission. NASA also would opt not to fly over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, so a delay beyond Nov. 25 likely would push the Endeavour mission to early next year.

NASA last Thursday activated back-up Mission Control Centers near Austin, Texas, and Huntsville, Ala. The back-up centers have limited capabilities and a robotic Russian cargo carrier is loitering in an orbit near the station while NASA recovers from Ike.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge and save the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite view of the remnants of Hurricane Ike, now a tropical depression generating heavy rain and thunderstorms over the Lower and Mid-Mississippi Valleys. To the north, a cold front and stationary front triggers stormy weather across the Great Lakes and portions of the Northeast. Photo credit: The Associated Press/Weather Underground.