NASA has accounted for all civil servants and most contractors
at two facilities impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and the agency is
evaluating the storm's effect on the Space Shuttle Program.
Top officials say it is too soon to determine how the storm will
impact planning for Space Shuttle missions next year.
"We will always go with
what the technical facts tell us," NASA Administrator Michael
Griffin said in response to speculation about the next Space
Shuttle launch date.
"Right now, we are trying to gather those facts."
NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC), a sprawling facility on the
Mississippi Gulf Coast where Space Shuttle Main Engines are tested,
and Michoud Assembly Facility, where Space Shuttle external fuel
tanks are manufactured east of New Orleans, are in the
storm-ravaged areas.
Griffin spoke to agency employees after touring the
installations. He praised workers who oversaw agency facilities
during and after the storm. "You can't buy the kind of dedication
that I saw down there from our folks for money, for any amount of
money," he said.
"It is not about salary or about holding a job. It is about
dedication to the program."
Griffin also said the agency is committed to maintaining
long-term operations at Stennis and Michoud as the communities
around them rebuild after the storm.
Bill Gerstenmaier,
NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations, and Bill
Parsons, the senior agency official in charge of the hurricane
recovery effort, told reporters Thursday facilities at SSC and
Michoud suffered some significant damage but are largely intact.
Inspections revealed the potential for only minimal damage to
flight hardware. They said the larger issues are the large number
of workers who lost their homes and transportation challenges due
to flooded roads and washed-out bridges leading to both
facilities.
"Our facilities are in pretty good shape, but we have to see
what the workforce wants to do," Gerstenmaier said. "We're going to
figure out the right thing to do."
A preliminary estimate indicates damage to NASA facilities and
other costs associated with the hurricane could reach $1.1 billion,
with an estimated $600 million in costs at Stennis and $500 million
at Michoud.
Agency management is looking for ways to accommodate displaced
workers and their families. Officials are also considering ways to
use other NASA facilities to perform some work normally done at
Stennis and Michoud.
Both Stennis and Michoud are closed to normal operations. There
are plans to open Stennis in a limited capacity next week. Both
facilities are operating as staging grounds for federal agencies
conducting rescue and recovery efforts in New Orleans and along the
Gulf Coast. The number of relief workers at Stennis could soon
number several thousand.
"We have one heck of an operation going on here, and I'm glad I
could be of some help," Parsons said.