Martin Wilson leads NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe second from left on a tour of the Thermal Protection System Facility.

Martin Wilson (far left), manager of Thermal Protection System (TPS) operations for United Space Alliance (USA), leads NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe (second from left) on a tour of the hurricane-ravaged Thermal Protection System Facility. The TPSF, which creates the TPS tiles, blankets and all the internal thermal control systems for the Space Shuttles, is almost totally unserviceable at this time after losing approximately 35 percent of its roof in the storm, which blew across Central Florida Sept. 4-5. Undamaged equipment was removed from the TPSF and stored in the RLV hangar. O’Keefe and NASA Associate Administrator of Space Operations Mission Directorate William Readdy are visiting KSC to survey the damage sustained by KSC facilities from the hurricane. The Labor Day storm also caused significant damage to the Vehicle Assembly Building and Processing Control Center. Additionally, the Operations and Checkout Building, Vertical Processing Facility, Hangar AE, Hangar S and Hangar AF Small Parts Facility each received substantial damage. However, well-protected and unharmed were NASA’s three Space Shuttle orbiters - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - along with the Shuttle launch pads, all of the critical flight hardware for the orbiters and the International Space Station, and NASA’s Swift spacecraft that is awaiting launch in October.