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Huge storm a threat to Boeing's satellite operations in Florida
Wednesday, September 15, 1999
By PAUL NYHAN
The gusts from Hurricane Floyd are threatening to reach across the country to disrupt Boeing's satellite business and some of its other aerospace work.
The hurricane, already potentially one of the worst storms in a century to hit U.S. shores, could wreak havoc at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That center is home to hundreds of Boeing workers, three satellite launch pads and much of the work on the International Space Station, which Boeing oversees as the prime contractor.
As Hurricane Floyd loomed off the coast yesterday, federal workers strove to protect those assets, lashing down the launch structures and the vehicles in them, sandbagging buildings and boarding-up windows. If the hurricane tears through those protections the U.S. government will likely pay the biggest price.
That's because the government, not Boeing or other aerospace firms, owns the vast majority of the facilities at the Kennedy Space Center.
"We are optimistic," said Dwayne Brown, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "If this thing hits with the severity that some are predicting, we could be in some serious trouble,"
The greater threat to Boeing -- now that the company has evacuated most of its employees -- is the potential the storm holds to disrupt certain business operations, such as satellite launches. The company already has postponed the launch of a Global Positioning Satellite thanks to the hurricane, according to Walt Rice, a Boeing spokesman on satellite issues, based in California.
"The Delta facilities at the Cape are at risk," Rice said. "It is a threat to all facilities at the Cape."
NASA was forced to leave a Boeing-built Delta II Rocket, which was scheduled to carry the GPS satellite into orbit later this month, lashed to its launch pad. The Air Force owns the rocket.
"If we can't launch then we lose the revenue from that business," said Rice. "The entire space industry will be affected the same way. We've all halted launch preparations."
Still, the federal government has the most at stake. The Kennedy Space Center is home to a host of high-priced space projects. For example, four space shuttle orbiters, each worth between $1 billion and $2 billion, are based at the center, according to NASA. The orbiters aren't insured.
"It would be cheaper actually to ask Congress to appropriate funds to build new ones than to have insurance policies on them," said NASA's Brown.
The Kennedy Center is also home to much of the massive International Space Station. As the private company overseeing the project, Boeing has an interest in what happens to it during the storm . But, the U.S. government and its foreign partners own the assets in jeopardy, not Boeing, and thus they bear the biggest risk.
"They build it. We own it," said NASA's Brown.
The federal government's space assets are exposed at Cape Canaveral -- at least in terms of most storms. Buildings at the space compound are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. The problem is the facilities aren't designed to cope with the top gusts that some are predicting Floyd will generate.
For example, one of the space shuttle assembly buildings can withstand 125-mile-per-hour winds, while certain other facilities can weather 105-mile-per-hour winds, NASA says. The problem is Floyd's gusts have already reached more than 140 mph.
Still, NASA officials said it's possible the structures are actually stronger than their official specifications.
As the hurricane lashed through the Bahamas yesterday, NASA officials said they were taking every possible step to protect the billions of dollars of federal space assets located in central Florida.
For example, NASA shipped 11 solid rocket booster segments used on the space shuttle to Tallahassee, Fla.
The agency also shipped out most of its workers, evacuating 13,000 employees. The move left between 80 and 120 volunteers to man the center during the storm, Brown said.
"The folks have done everything possible," Brown said.
However, public and private officials said their concerns went beyond the technology and infrastructure of the U.S. space program.
"This is a national asset," said Rice.
P-I reporter Paul Nyhan can be reached at 206-448-8145 or paulnyhan@seattle-pi.com
Information from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News was used in this report.
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