According to an article published in BBC and Space, Hurricane Dorian is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane storm as it heads towards the US mainland.
What happened?
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned, Dorian is currently a category one hurricane, but could be category four by the time it reaches the mainland winds. The winds were expected to reach 130mph (210km/h) over the weekend.
The storm is expected to hit somewhere between Florida and southern Georgia, possibly late on Sunday, the NHC says.
Florida declares emergency
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency. He told residents it was “important for Floridians on the East Coast to monitor this storm closely“, advising them to stock up on at least seven days worth of food.
The NHC noted the risk of “devastating hurricane-force winds along the Florida East Coast“ in its latest advisory.
The warnings come after the eye of the storm missed the main island of Puerto Rico, sparing it significant damage, as it headed north-west on Thursday.
Hurricane Dorian forecast
As of Thursday morning, the storm was packing winds of 85mph and has been predicted to bring up to 12in (30cm) of rain when it reaches land. It is currently some 220 miles (355km) north of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
Dorian grazed the edge of the main island of Puerto Rico but the US territory’s smaller islands, Vieques and Culetra, have been battered by heavy rain and high winds. On Wednesday, wind gusts of 111mph were reported close to St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, just east of Puerto Rico.
The NHC expects Dorian – which is traveling in a north-westerly direction at about 13mph – to reach major hurricane status by Friday. According to the latest update, it should pass “well east“ of the south-eastern and central Bahamas on Friday, before moving over or near parts of the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday.
NASA braces for impact
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is preparing to weather the arrival of Hurricane Dorian, which could hit Florida early next week. Forecasters have warned of life-threatening flash flooding and rip-current conditions as the storm moves across the region.
Those preparations include preparing to protect the massive Mobile Launcher that is currently on a launch pad undergoing testing in part of NASA’s Artemis program to land astronauts on the moon in 2024, should the team decide such a move is necessary. The Mobile Launcher is a tower designed to support NASA’s Space Launch System megarocket when it’s on the launchpad for missions to the moon and beyond.
“We have a hurricane, which is forecast to come to Florida,“ NASA’s Derrol Nail said in a video update from the spaceport, “and so this particular launch tower, which is 400 feet tall, is obviously at risk of being damaged by a hurricane if it makes a hit in this area.”
Arrangements in place
Even if the storm ends up turning away, for now, when it comes to the country’s leading spaceport, NASA would rather err on the side of safety.
The agency on Wednesday moved its hulking Apollo-era crawler-transporter out to Launch Complex 39B in case the team needs to bring the massive Mobile Launcher inside for the storm. That deployment must be made promptly because the crawler-transporter travels at just 1 mph (1.6 km/h).
The launch tower itself is 400 feet (122 meters) tall, which makes it a clear hazard in the high winds of a hurricane. NASA will decide today (August 29) whether Dorian is threatening enough to merit moving the launch tower into Kennedy’s cavernous 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building for safety.
The agency made similar decisions during the space shuttle program, which used the crawler-transporter and a Mobile Launch Platform to move orbiters to and from the launchpad. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be closed on Sunday, September 1.
SpaceX to implement necessary precautions
Just as NASA prepares for Hurricane Dorian’s arrival, so, too, is the private spaceflight company SpaceX, which launches its Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 rockets from the Kennedy Space Center and the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX is also building a prototype for its new Starship reusable rocket at its Florida facility.
“In coordination with our partners at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center, we are closely monitoring weather conditions and planning to take all necessary precautions to protect our employees and safeguard facilities in the potentially affected areas,“ a SpaceX spokesperson told.
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