Storm damage at ULA launch site ‘minor’
Hurricane Irma caused “minor damage” to United Launch Alliance’s Space Coast facilities, but did not harm important flight hardware, the company said Tuesday.
The next launch from the coast is scheduled for Sept. 28, when ULA plans to send an Atlas V rocket into space carrying a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
The partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin made its first assessment after Irma made its way up Florida’s Gulf coast.
Tropical storm-force winds battered the Space Coast for more than 24 hours overnight Sunday into Monday.
“Due to the extraordinary efforts by the 45th Space Wing and ULA teams to recover from this storm, we may restore normal operations as early as Wednesday,” the ULA statement read.
Initial reports found minimal damage at SpaceX facilities, but a full assessment has not been done. However, a spokesman said there was “far less” damage seen than from Hurricane Matthew last year. That 2016 storm initially had been forecast to directly hit the Space Coast, but then veered east slightly.
SpaceX’s next planned for Oct. 2.
Russ DeLoach, NASA director of safety and mission assurance, sent a note to employees Tuesday urging them to be safe as the agency began to implement its own plan. He also reiterated a city of Cocoa warning that watermain breaks could have harmed launch is the city’s water supply, and advised employees to seek out boilwater alerts.
KSC remains closed to nonessential personnel, and will reopen no earlier than Thursday. DART employees will continue damage assessment and recovery operations.
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A website announcement Monday reported that “we seem to have weathered Hurricane Irma without major damage, including Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Rocket Garden.”
Power and utility issues were the cause of the extended closure, according to the update, which said a reopening date had not been determined: “Look for more updates as we continue to assess current conditions.”
Elsewhere on the Space Coast, the U.S. Air Force recalled all personnel to Patrick Air Force Base on Monday from an evacuation ordered in preparation for Hurricane Irma.
Other assessments are ongoing to determine how launches would be affected, said Dale Ketcham, Space Florida chief of strategic alliances. “We have a lot of work to do before resuming flight operations,” he said. “But we have been through this before and we know what to do.”
Ketcham said initial assessments seem to indicate few major problems.
Hurricane Irma also forced United Launch Alliance to delay a Thursday launch from California because of the impact the storm had on its ground staff in Florida. ULA spokeswoman Lyn Chassagne said a new launch date has not been set.