WEATHER

Hurricane Matthew at KSC: Millions in damages

James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

Hurricane Matthew caused millions of dollars of damage at Kennedy Space Center, but the head of America's spaceport is grateful that the hit wasn't much worse.

The Vehicle Assembly Building is seen during an aerial survey of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Saturday. The survey was performed to identify structures and facilities that may have sustained damage from Hurricane Matthew as the storm passed to the east of Kennedy on Oct. 6 and 7, 2016.

"We were definitely lucky," KSC Director Bob Cabana told reporters Tuesday. "Overall, (there is) significant damage, especially when you consider all the roof damage and the water intrusion, but so much better than what it could have been."

The center reopened Tuesday for its first full day of normal operations since shutting down last Wednesday afternoon, when Matthew was threatening a direct hit as a Category 4 storm.

The Beach House is seen during an aerial survey of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday. The survey was performed to identify structures and facilities that may have sustained damage from Hurricane Matthew as the storm passed to the east of Kennedy on Oct. 6 and 7, 2016. Officials determined that the center received some isolated roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines, and limited water intrusion. Beach erosion also occurred, although the storm surge was less than expected. NASA closed the center ahead of the storm’s onset and only a small team of specialists known as the Rideout Team was on the center as the storm approached and passed.

On Friday, sustained winds above 80 mph blew through pads and processing facilities critical to the nation's space launch capability. A 500-foot tower recorded a gust as high as 136 mph.

But the eye of the then-Category 3 hurricane held 20 to 25 miles off shore, sparing the center — and the rest of Brevard County — catastrophic damage.

Perhaps KSC's most serious failure was the loss of air conditioning throughout the Launch Complex 39 area, after a utility building responsible for running an industrial chiller lost a roof. Its equipment became waterlogged and shut down.

Over the weekend, KSC's Damage Assessment and Recovery Team scrambled to secure portable chillers from as far away as Charlotte and Atlanta to cool air and dry out wet buildings, making it possible for employees to return to work Tuesday.

Roof damage caused water intrusion down to the second floor of the five-story Operations Support Building II, a decade-old structure whose glass facade overlooks launch pads 39A and 39B. With about one-fifth of the building unusable, employees bunched together to share work stations or were offered temporary space in other locations.

KSC's iconic Beach House, an oceanside conference center famous as a place astronauts and their families have gathered before launches, also lost a chunk of its roof and sustained water damage.

KSC, Cape resume normal operations Tuesday

But major facilities like the 525-foot Vehicle assembly Building were relatively unscathed.

In 2004, by contrast, hurricanes Frances and Jeanne ripped large panels from the VAB's exterior, part of more than $125 million in damage across the center.

After that event, corroded fasteners holding the panels in place were replaced with stainless steel washers and nuts, and they worked.

"The VAB panels, having them all on, that was a significant smile on my face, because that was just a big project for a long time to go put those back on," said Bob Holl, lead for KSC's Damage Assessment and Recovery Team.

Other major facilities in good shape are launch pad 39B, where NASA's Space Launch System rocket could fly for the first time in 2018; the Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, where Orion crew capsules are being assembled; the Space Station Processing Facility; and KSC's headquarters — the old one and a replacement now under construction.

KSC, Cape Canaveral dodged 'bit of a bullet' with Matthew

Boeing has built a temporary enclosure where doors will need to be replaced on one side of the former shuttle hangar where the company is assembling CST-100 Starliner capsules. SpaceX said launch pad 39A, which it has leased from NASA, was undamaged.

The storm has probably delayed by a few days NASA's next launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, of a national weather satellite, but won't affect longer-term human exploration missions.

"I don’t know at this time of any significant issues that will impact SLS or Orion as a result of the hurricane," Cabana said.

No specific estimate was available yet for center-wide repair costs, but Cabana said they would be "in the millions of dollars."

KSC ride-out team braces for Matthew's impact

The center director praised the more than 100-person team that rode out the storm inside KSC's Launch Control Center, the recovery team that enabled the center to reopen Tuesday, and KSC's roughly 8,000 civil servants and contractors for taking safety and evacuation warnings seriously.

On Saturday, the day after the strongest winds, he took part in an aerial survey of the spaceport.

"I was really worried," he said. "And even though I saw a lot of damage, I had great relief, because it wasn’t as bad as it could have been."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.