CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA remained on track for Wednesday’s planned liftoff of its new moon rocket, after determining that hurricane damage provided little extra risk to the test flight.
Hurricane Nicole’s high winds caused a 10-foot (3-meter) section of caulking to peel away near the crew capsule at the top of the rocket last Thursday. The material tore away in small pieces, rather than one big strip, said mission manager Mike Sarafin.
“We’re comfortable flying as is,” based on flight experience with this material, Sarafin told reporters Monday night.
Liftoff is scheduled for the early morning hours of Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with test dummies rather than astronauts on board. It’s the first test flight for the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, and will attempt to send the capsule into lunar orbit.
The nearly monthlong $4 billion mission has been grounded since August by fuel leaks and Hurricane Ian, which forced the rocket back into its hangar for shelter at the end of September. The rocket remained at the pad for Nicole; managers said there wasn’t enough time to move it once it became clear the storm was going to be stronger than anticipated.
Sarafin acknowledged Monday night that there’s “a small likelihood” that more of the pliable, lightweight caulking might come off during liftoff. The most likely place to be hit would be a particularly large and robust section of the rocket, he noted, resulting in minimal damage.
Engineers never determined what caused the dangerous hydrogen fuel leaks during the two late summer launch attempts. But the launch team is confident that slowing the flow rate will put less pressure on the sensitive fuel line seals and keep any leakage within acceptable limits, said Jeremy Parsons, a deputy program manager.
The space agency plans to send astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land a crew on the lunar surface in 2025.
Astronauts last visited the moon in December 1972, closing out the Apollo program.
A microwave oven-size NASA satellite, meanwhile, arrived Sunday in a special lunar orbit following a summer liftoff from New Zealand. This elongated orbit, stretching as much as tens of thousands of miles (kilometers), is where the space agency plans to build a depot for lunar crews. The way station, known as Gateway, will serve astronauts going to and from the lunar surface.
The satellite, called Capstone, will spend six months testing a navigation system in this orbit.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s moon rocket needs only minor repairs after enduring a hurricane at the pad and is on track for its first test flight next week, a top official said Friday.
“Right now, there’s nothing preventing us” from attempting a launch on Wednesday, said NASA’s Jim Free, an associate administrator.
The wind never exceeded the rocket’s design limits as Hurricane Nicole swept through Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, according to Free. But he acknowledged if the launch team had known in advance that a hurricane was going to hit, they likely would have kept the rocket indoors. The rocket was moved out to the pad late last week for its $4.1 billion demo mission.
Gusts reached 100 mph (160 kph) atop the launch tower, but were not nearly as strong farther down at the rocket. Computer models indicate there should be no strength or fatigue issues from the storm, even deep inside the rocket, Free noted.
NASA had been aiming for an early Monday launch, but put it on hold for two days because of the storm.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, known as SLS for Space Launch System, is the most powerful ever built by NASA. A crew capsule atop the rocket, with three test dummies on board, will shoot for the moon — the first such flight in 50 years when Apollo astronauts last visited the moon.
NASA wants to test all the systems before putting astronauts on board in 2024 for a trip around the moon.
Two previous launch attempts, in late summer, were thwarted by fuel leaks. Hurricane Ian also forced a return to the hangar at the end of September.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WILBUR-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. — Tropical Depression Nicole was moving through Georgia Friday morning after a day of causing havoc as it churned through Florida as a hurricane and then tropical storm.
The rare November hurricane could dump as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains by Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible as the rain spreads into the eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England through Saturday.
Nicole had spent Thursday cutting across central Florida after making landfall as a hurricane early that morning near Vero Beach. The brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area. The storm made it to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday evening before turning north.
The storm caused at least two deaths and sent homes along Florida’s coast toppling into the Atlantic Ocean and damaged many others, including hotels and a row of high-rise condominiums. It was another devastating blow just weeks after Hurricane Ian came ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 130 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Nicole was the first hurricane to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019. For storm-weary Floridians, it was only the first November hurricane to hit their shores since 1985 and only the third since recordkeeping began in 1853.
Nicole was sprawling, covering nearly the entire weather-weary state of Florida while also reaching into Georgia and the Carolinas before dawn on Thursday. Tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 450 miles (720 kilometers) from the center in some directions as Nicole turned northward over central Florida.
Although Nicole’s winds did minimal damage, its storm surge was more destructive than might have been in the past because seas are rising as the planet’s ice melts due to climate change, said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer. It adds up to higher coastal flooding, flowing deeper inland, and what used to be once-in-a-century events that will happen almost yearly in some places, he said.
“It is definitely part of a picture that is happening,” Oppenheimer said. “It’s going to happen elsewhere. It’s going to happen all across the world.’’
Officials in Volusia County, northeast of Orlando, said Thursday evening that building inspectors had declared 24 hotels and condos in Daytona Beach Shores and New Smyrna Beach to be unsafe and ordered their evacuations. At least 25 single-family homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea had been declared structurally unsafe by building inspectors and also were evacuated, county officials said.
“Structural damage along our coastline is unprecedented. We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” County Manager George Recktenwald said during a news conference earlier, noting that it was not known when evacuated residents can safely return home.
A man and a woman were killed by electrocution when they touched downed power lines in the Orlando area, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. Nicole also caused flooding well inland, as parts of the St. Johns River were at or above flood stage and some rivers in the Tampa Bay area also nearing flood levels, according to the National Weather Service.
All 67 Florida counties were under a state of emergency. President Joe Biden also approved an emergency declaration for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ordering federal help for the tribal nation. Many Seminoles live on six reservations around the state.
Parts of Florida were devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm. Ian destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state — damage that many are still dealing with — and sent a storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) onshore, causing widespread destruction.
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For more AP coverage of our changing climate: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Hurricane Nicole making landfall early on Nov. 10, 2022 just osuth of Vero Beach, Fla.
NOAA
Hurricane Nicole made landfall early Thursday along the east coast of Florida just south of Vero Beach, the National Hurricane Center said, and quickly lost some punch and was downgraded into a tropical storm. It was still hitting a large area of the storm-weary state with strong winds, dangerous storm surge and heavy rain, the center said.
What was a rare November hurricane had already led officials to shut down airports and theme parks and order evacuations that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Authorities warned that Nicole’s storm surge could further erode many beaches hit by Hurricane Ian in September. The sprawling storm is forecast to head into Georgia and the Carolinas later Thursday and Friday, dumping heavy rain across the region.
Some 54,000 homes and businesses in Florida had no electricity as Nicole approached, according to PowerOutage.us.
Nicole was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph early Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The threshold for a storm to be considered a hurricane is 74 mph sustained winds.
It was about 15 miles north-northwest of Fort Pierce and moving west-northwest at 14 mph.
Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 485 miles from the center in some directions. Nicole’s center is expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday and into the Carolinas on Friday.
A few tornadoes will be possible through early Thursday across east-central to northeast Florida, the hurricane center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible along with renewed river rises on the St. Johns River across the Florida Peninsula Thursday.
Heavy rainfall from this system is forecast to spread northward across portions of the Southeast, eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday.
Large swells generated by Nicole will affect the northwestern Bahamas, the east coast of Florida and much of the southeastern U.S. coast over the next few days.
Nicole is expected to weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States through Friday and is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday afternoon.
Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island after making landfall just hours earlier on Great Abaco island as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. It’s the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.
For storm-weary Floridians, it’s only the third November hurricane to hit their shores since recordkeeping began in 1853. The previous ones were the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.
Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, was in one of the evacuation zones, about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise about 15 feet above sea level, and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated. There was no sign of evacuation by Wednesday afternoon.
There’s no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews won’t respond if it puts their members at risk.
Officials in Daytona Beach Shores deemed unsafe at least a half dozen, multi-story, coastal residential buildings already damaged by Hurricane Ian and now threatened by Nicole. At some locations, authorities went door-to-door telling people to grab their possessions and leave.
Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort announced they probably wouldn’t open as scheduled on Thursday.
Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would suspend operations. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., also closed. Farther south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport experienced some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.
Nicole “will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said.
Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters were open along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.
Forty-five of Florida’s 67 counties were under an emergency declaration.
Warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline that was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state – damage many are still dealing with.
Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based hurricane center, said the storm would affect a large swath of Florida.
“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,” he said.
Early Wednesday, President Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still responding to people who need help in Hurricane Ian’s wake.
Ian brought storm surge of up to 13 feet in late September, causing widespread destruction.
Hurricane Nicole made landfall on Florida’s east coast early Thursday morning as a Category 1 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center—though it was quickly downgraded back to a tropical storm an hour later—bringing sustained wind, rain and power outages to Florida as the state still continues to recover from Hurricane Ian.
People check-out the waves at Causeway Beach Park before Hurricane Nicole makes landfall in Jensen … [+] Beach, Florida on November 9.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Nicole made landfall on Florida’s North Hutchinson Island, south of Vero Beach, with estimated maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, the NHC reported at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time Thursday.
The NHC then updated at 4:00 a.m. to say Nicole was now a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour.
The storm is expected to move through central Florida Thursday toward the Gulf of Mexico, and will then move across the Florida Panhandle and Georgia Thursday night into Friday, the NHC reported as of 4:00 a.m.
The storm is expected to continue to weaken as it moves inland, and central and northern Florida are expected to receive three to five inches of rain (maximum eight inches), while some parts of the Florida coast could receive up to five feet of storm surge and tornadoes are possible in parts of the state through early Thursday morning.
Flooding had already been reported in Florida last night ahead of Nicole’s arrival, according to local newsreports, and some areas were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders ahead of the storm, along with some buildings that had already suffered structural damage from Hurricane Ian.
More than 40 Florida counties are under a state of emergency, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an emergency declaration earlier this week and then amended it Wednesday to include an additional 11 counties.
Big Number
63,619. That’s the number of customers in Florida without power as of 3:50 a.m. Eastern time, according to PowerOutage.us.
What To Watch For
Americans in more northern states will also see rainfall from Nicole as the storm moves inland and weakens, with the NHC projecting the southeast, southern Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic region will receive two to four inches of rain through Saturday, including eastern parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Northern mid-Atlantic states and New England will receive one to four inches of rain.
Surprising Fact
Nicole is the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in November since Hurricane Kate in 1985, CNN notes.
Tangent
The mandatory evacuation orders for Hurricane Nicole include former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach County—which is already currently closed to guests—but the Washington Postreports the ex-president did not plan to evacuate.
Key Background
Hurricane Nicole arrives in Florida weeks after the state was already battered by Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in late September. The storm ranks as one of the state’s deadliest recent storms, killing more than 100 people, and caused an estimated $67 billion in damage, making it the second costliest storm next to Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Nicole making landfall early on Nov. 10, 2022 just osuth of Vero Beach, Fla.
NOAA
Hurricane Nicole made landfall early Thursday along the east coast of Florida just south of Vero Beach, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was already battering a large area of the storm-weary state with strong winds, dangerous storm surge and heavy rain, the center said.
The rare November hurricane had already led officials to shut down airports and theme parks and order evacuations that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Authorities warned that Nicole’s storm surge could further erode many beaches hit by Hurricane Ian in September. The sprawling storm is forecast to head into Georgia and the Carolinas later Thursday and Friday, dumping heavy rain across the region.
Some 54,000 homes and businesses in Florida had no electricity as Nicole approached, according to PowerOutage.us.
Nicole was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph early Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The threshold for a storm to be considered a hurricane is 74 mph sustained winds.
It was about 15 miles north-northwest of Fort Pierce and moving west-northwest at 14 mph.
Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 485 miles from the center in some directions. Nicole’s center is expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday and into the Carolinas on Friday.
A few tornadoes will be possible through early Thursday across east-central to northeast Florida, the hurricane center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible along with renewed river rises on the St. Johns River across the Florida Peninsula Thursday.
Heavy rainfall from this system is forecast to spread northward across portions of the Southeast, eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday.
Large swells generated by Nicole will affect the northwestern Bahamas, the east coast of Florida and much of the southeastern U.S. coast over the next few days.
Nicole is expected to weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States through Friday and is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday afternoon.
Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island after making landfall just hours earlier on Great Abaco island as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. It’s the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.
For storm-weary Floridians, it’s only the third November hurricane to hit their shores since recordkeeping began in 1853. The previous ones were the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.
Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, was in one of the evacuation zones, about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise about 15 feet above sea level, and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated. There was no sign of evacuation by Wednesday afternoon.
There’s no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews won’t respond if it puts their members at risk.
Officials in Daytona Beach Shores deemed unsafe at least a half dozen, multi-story, coastal residential buildings already damaged by Hurricane Ian and now threatened by Nicole. At some locations, authorities went door-to-door telling people to grab their possessions and leave.
Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort announced they probably wouldn’t open as scheduled on Thursday.
Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would suspend operations. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., also closed. Farther south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport experienced some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.
Nicole “will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said.
Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters were open along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.
Forty-five of Florida’s 67 counties were under an emergency declaration.
Warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline that was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state – damage many are still dealing with.
Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based hurricane center, said the storm would affect a large swath of Florida.
“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,” he said.
Early Wednesday, President Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still responding to people who need help in Hurricane Ian’s wake.
Ian brought storm surge of up to 13 feet in late September, causing widespread destruction.
