NASA’s Johnson Space Center Closes Through Labor Day for Tropical Storm Harvey
“NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will remain closed to all but mission essential personnel through Labor Day due to the effects of now-Tropical Storm Harvey. The center originally closed Aug. 25 and will reopen Tuesday, Sept. 5. The center’s leadership team continues to closely monitor weather conditions and the overall situation in Houston, and is preparing a full assessment of the center’s status once the storm abates.”
JSC Today Special: Aug. 29 Tropical Storm Harvey Update
“The Center will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5 to all but Mission Essential personnel. The group of Mission Essential personnel will be larger in the coming days due to mission operations and you will be contacted by your organization if you’re needed. Please do not come to the center until you hear from your supervisor. Civil servants should look for an email from HR with instructions for excused leave for this time period. Contractors should talk to their contract company management for directions and further information. Harvey is forecast to make a second landfall near the TX/LA state line around sunrise Wednesday. No strengthening is forecast prior to landfall. Impacts to JSC: JSC will continue to see moderate to occasionally heavy rain today into this evening.”
– JSC Emergency Management website
– Live webcam at Space Center Houston

– Live webcam at I-45 and NASA Rd 1
– Live webcam at IH-45 Gulf at Nasa Rd 1
– Live webcam at NASA Road 1 at Nasa Pkwy
– Live webcam at NASA Road 1 at Upper Bay Dr.
– Live webcam at NASA Road 1 at Space Center Blvd.
– Live webcam at NASA Road 1 at Repsdorph

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

17 replies on “Update On Conditions At JSC”

  1. If it were not for Harvey, the intense rain and flooding in SW Florida would be taking the weather spotlight. We have incredible flooding here but nothing to compare with Houston. The same two blocking highs that are keeping Harvey stationary are also keeping a Tropical Depression off the coast of SW Florida stationary and training rains onto Florida are responsible for widespread flooding here in FL. All I can offer is hopes and prayers that the water stops falling from the skies. Once that happens, the waters will, perhaps, slowly recede and life will eventually return to normal, both in TX AND FL.

    1. Indeed. We exceeded 20″ at my place last night. Today there is nearly no rain and a light breeze. I imagine it will ll be gone by Thursday. Texas, not so much.

  2. A relative of mine lives two miles from JSC (retired from NASA). So far his home is okay, and he still has power, but he is pretty much stranded as it’s too dangerous to drive through the flooded streets. Hopefully all of the current and former NASA employees who live in the area will come through it okay

    1. Friend I know who lives somewhere around JSC is in the same situation. No water in the house, but the residential street was flooded and water was half way up the yard towards the house.

  3. The heart breaking pictures from Houston are impossible to watch, impossible to look away. Not even imaginable.

    I keep thinking that at least the temperatures are warm. But my god how many are without flood insurance?

    1. But my god how many are without flood insurance?

      More soon. Apparently Texas recently passed new laws making it harder to claim on insurance. If you want your claim for this storm to be grandfathered in under the old rules, you have to apply before Sept 1, in writing.

  4. For a better perspective on the new reality, check out this great article!
    “By continuing to pretend that we can engineer our way out of the worsening flooding problem with bigger dams, more levees and higher-powered pumping equipment, we’re fooling ourselves into a more dangerous future.”
    http://www.politico.com/mag…

    1. It seems there is always someone these days willing to use a disaster to advance their political agenda. How sad….

  5. It has been pretty bad around JSC until today, I live two miles from there. NASA Rd 1 and other major roads in the Clear Lake area are now not floodedis clear, so many people who work there could get to work tomorrow, but wise to check for structural damage to on site building first. That may be why they are closing for so long.

  6. They can shift control to mobile MCC ride out team in round Rock or msfc or ksc. During shuttle days they sent iss team to round Rock on several occasions due to storms IIRC

  7. During shuttle the teams practiced setting up temporary MCC facilities at White Sands. Don’t know if they do such things today for ISS.

  8. During Apollo the Cape was suppose to be the backup to JSC. I imagine that is still true today…

    1. It is but at present JSC still has their ISS control room up, I assume for awhile they were in rideout mode.

        1. And that story made me wonder if they were correct. One quote was about not being able to support ISS from anywhere. After almost twenty years working on the Cassini project, I wonder if that’s true, or just traditional. Cassini instrument operations is done by people scattered all over the world. Well, in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. That’s typically at the PI’s institution, but the job can really be done from anywhere.

          With a laptop and internet connections (and VPN), an instrument operator can pull up a window with live, or most recent, telemetry from the spacecraft. If you see something strange, and want a second pair of eyes looking at something, you can text and ask someone to pull up the same window and telemetry page. You don’t have to lean over to the person sitting next to you and say, “Take a look at what I’m seeing on my monitor.”

          Sending up “non-interactive” (i.e. not affecting any other subsystem on the spacecraft) can be done with a different GUI. More significant commands require talking to people and getting approval. That’s typically done on teleconferences, although Skype would also work.

          In fact, I remember one Cassini planning meeting, which I guess about two or three dozen people typically attended. About a quarter to a third would be people from JPL. On that occasion, I happened to be at JPL for other reasons and decided to go to the conference room and (for once) attend in person rather than calling in. The room was empty. The people from JPL were all calling in from their offices rather than walking down the hall to the conference room.

          I know some people can (and have) pointed to the importance of face-to-face meetings, and having people together. To some extent, I understand the social, psychological or management value of that. But I’m not sure if it’s all that necessary, if face-to-face meetings every few months are sufficient, or if that is mostly just habit (people who are used to doing things in person insisting on that being the way things have to be done.)

  10. There are backups, as others have noted, but not in Colorado. If you really like Colorado, Lockheed Martin’s facility south of Denver is a frequently-used back up for unmanned planetary missions.

    But actually, wouldn’t a loss of contact with mission control do one of the things ISS is supposed to be doing? Astronauts on a Mars mission will not have a mission control looking over their shoulder. With a four to twenty minute one-way light time, that’s not viable. If ISS is supposed to test things we’ll need to do on Mars missions, a week without mission control and with limited radio contact might be informative.

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