NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, located on Florida’s Merritt Island, is one of the many places in the state gearing up for Hurricane Milton before it hits this week.
Milton, a Category 5 storm, is expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay region in the early hours of Thursday morning, with powerful winds and other hazardous conditions likely to occur beforehand.
The space center’s staff has been told to “maintain regular contact” with supervisors directing on-site and remote work.
The space center is still open but under a HURCON III status, it said in its most recent update. This classification is used for 48 hours before 50-knot sustained winds (around 58 miles per hour) and triggers the securing of facilities, property and equipment.
In addition, HURCON III status usually means the briefing and deployment of the Ride-Out Team (ROT), a group of between 100 and 120 people who stay at the center for the …