Hurricane Ike Delays Cargo Shipment In SpaceHurricane Ike Delays Cargo Shipment In Space

Hurricane Ike's impact is extending all the way to outer space -- and it hasn't even made a U.S. landfall yet.

With Ike bearing down on the Texas coast, NASA officials have closed the Johnson Space Center in Houston. That, in turn, has delayed docking of the cargo spaceship Russian Progress with the International Space Station. The Johnson Space Center commands many space station systems, and officials had to transfer control to locations near Austin, Texas, and Huntsville, Ala., because of hazardous weather conditions, NASA said Thursday.

The unpiloted cargo ship launched Wednesday with more than 2 tons of supplies, including food, fuel, air, water, and propellant, for astronauts who are 220 miles above Earth.

Cmdr. Sergei Volkov and flight engineers Oleg Kononenko and Greg Chamitoff are awaiting the arrival of the cargo ship, which uses an automated docking system to connect to part of the space station's Zvesda service module. Volkov has access to manual docking system controls, as well.

Russian flight controllers originally planned to keep the cargo ship in orbit, away from the station, until Wednesday. If the Johnson Space Center's space station control room isn't able to resume command for docking, a backup facility could be used instead, NASA reported.

Once the Progress' cargo is unloaded, the spacecraft will take on trash from the space station, undock, and deorbit for disintegration in the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA Television may air coverage of the Progress' arrival, and astronauts aboard the space station already have transmitted photos of Hurricane Ike, which can be viewed on NASA's Web site.

A message at the Johnson Space Center said Friday that the facilities there could reopen as soon as Monday, unless the hurricane causes significant damage or weather continues to pose a threat.

The center will provide updates through recorded messages on its phone lines. If those should fail, employees can access information about the status of the center through an outside toll-free phone line or through the Emergency Operations Center on the NASA Web site.

Forecasters predicted that Hurricane Ike would make landfall Saturday. About 3.5 million people live in its path.