Kennedy Space Center battens the hatches for Floyd

The Vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center

September 14, 1999
Web posted at: 1:48 p.m. EDT (1748 GMT)

(CNN) -- The Kennedy Space Center closed Tuesday as the first winds from Hurricane Floyd reached the Florida coast, menacing costly and recently renovated launch sites maintained in Cape Canaveral by NASA and the U.S. Air Force.

Four multimillion-dollar rockets stood exposed on launch pads and could not be moved in time.

The Kennedy Space Center is only nine feet above sea level, so workers on Monday covered launch pads, elevated equipment and even prepared to tow rocket boosters to inland Florida.

The hurricane is expected to bring winds exceeding 125 mph -- exceeding the limits that KSC's launch pads, flight hardware facilities and Orbiter Processing Facility were built to withstand.

Space shuttles Discovery, Endeavour and Columbia remained in the latter building.

Atlantis was left in a high bay in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Monday, workers closed the payload bay doors on all the orbiters and raised equipment above the floor level to avoid flooding.

Eleven solid rocket booster segments were prepared for transport to Tallahassee, Florida, by railroad. In case traffic was prohibited due to storm conditions, a skeleton crew of 120 left at KSC was ready to secure the booster parts under railcar covers and address other emergencies.

Workers also boarded windows, removed and tied down antennae and sandbagged doors.

Equipment to be used during a mission to repair the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope -- launch is set for October 28 -- also was bagged and covered.

Dozens of military aircraft in Florida were flown to safer ground, and thousands of military personnel and civilians at Patrick Air Force Base were ordered to leave.

KSC was scheduled to remain closed through Wednesday.