NASA's Mississippi Facility Closed From Gustav ImpactNASA's Mississippi Facility Closed From Gustav Impact

Hurricane Gustav has taken a toll on NASA, causing the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to remain closed until Thursday.

NASA announced the closure of the center on Friday, as Gustav threatened to gain strength and strike the Gulf Coast. Monday, the center remained closed because employees from Louisiana and south Mississippi were affected by the category 2 hurricane. The center, which hosts research on hurricane risk assessments, will re-open Thursday for normal business hours and operations.

Before forecasters downgraded the hurricane to a tropical depression, nearly 2 million people evacuated coastal areas, then began cleaning up communities that were submerged in water.

The StennisSphere visitors' center hosts public tours, NASA's Applied Sciences Program, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, and Lockheed Martin's Mississippi Space and Technology Center.

It is the place where NASA and 30 other agencies work on programs involving space exploration, the environment, and national defense. The Naval Command is reportedly the largest concentration of oceanographers in the world.

The Stennis Center served as the testing ground for boosters that powered Apollo missions and it continues to host rocket propulsion tests today. The test facilities are valued at more than $2 billion and a 125,000-acre sound buffer zone surrounds the site. About 5,000 people are employed there.

Scientists there also work with the Constellation Advanced Projects Office at Johnson Space Center in Texas to provide support for lunar surface planning and analysis. The support includes remote sensing, geographic information systems, and lunar mapping support.

The site also hosts Astro Camp, where children ages 7 through 12 learn about computers, space, engineering and science, but NASA's Astro Camp calendar shows no scheduled activities until Sept. 20.