Hurricane Matthew Damages NASA’s Historic Artifacts

Photos released on Saturday, October 8 show an aerial view of damage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from Hurricane Matthew. The typhoon sustained winds of 90 mph (145 km/h) with speed exceeding 105 mph (170 km/h). It struck the Space coast overnight from Thursday to Friday at a speed of 26 miles (42 km) heading out northwards towards the coast of Cape Canaveral.

Pictures show that the 52-storey Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) still intact. Beside the VAB however, a large space shuttle artifact seems to have collapsed. They also show the orbiter access arm that used to be on top of Launch pad 39A on its side in the VAB’s parking lot.

During Hurricane Frances, VAB lost 820 panels on its south wall. In September 2004, VAB lost another 25 panels on its east wall. It was lucky not to receive any damage from Hurricane Mathew. Photos taken on Saturday show no damage done to the wall. The giant US flag and the NASA logo on the south side also looked to have escaped damage.

Adjacent exhibits like the armored M-113 astronaut escape vehicle and the Orion abort system tower replica remains intact.

A number of support buildings in the area lost portions of their roof. The same thing happened to the roof of a 1962 vintage two-story structure called the Beach House. This building served as the astronauts’ hangout prior to launch.

Kennedy Space Center officials wrote in a statement released on Saturday, “It was determined that the center received some isolated roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines and limited water intrusion. Teams of inspectors are going from building to building assessing damage.”

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex appeared relatively unharmed. However, the top of Thor-Delta booster rocket was missing. Thor-Delta is one of the seven historic boosters displayed at the popular Rocket Garden.

Officials did not disclose and details on damages on the historic Mercury and Gemini launch pad and facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Nevertheless, on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite imagery, the replica of Mercury-Redstone rocket can be seen standing at Launch Complex 5 (LC-5).

Older buildings from the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, which controls the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, also sustained damage.

Back to business

The Visitor Complex will re-open on October 9, Sunday. NASA will resume tourist sightseeing without bus tours of the Kennedy Space Center along with Apollo/Saturn V Center on NASA’s property. But on Monday it will restart its direct bus service to the moon booster’s building.

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