Hail, Hail

We had one heck of a storm roll through the space center last night. Winter in Florida is usually dry with rain only coming when a front passes through. Severe weather is uncommon this time of year. Yesterday was the exception. Yesterday was also start of the servicing operation for the orbiters internal propellant tanks. There were people in SCAPE suits in several different areas around the pad. I was out in a suit when the lightning started. Then it started to rain. Lucky for me our time was up right about then and a new crew took over for us. Not to long after we got back to the SCAPE base it starter raining really hard and the wind picked up. Then the hail started. It was so bad at one point that visibility was down to only a few feet. We a had about marble size hail at the biggest were I was at. We were the lucky ones. Apparently at the OPF's there were car windshields broken and some severe vehicle damage. Out on Pad A there weren't any window damage that I herd of but there was some vehicle damage. There were reports of two inch hail but I can't confirm that. It is probably my fault. I washed and waxed my truck this weekend. Sorry everybody.

All of that is bad but it might get worse. The external tank also got hit with potentially two inch hail. The tank foam was supposed to be inspected as soon as the sun came up this morning. Some of the camera views that I saw last night looked like there might be damage. There was also a rumor that even if no damage is seen that the stack will have to roll back to the VAB to be inspected in greater detail. There are access platforms there that allow for a much more detailed inspection. I haven't seen anything on the news and I can't find anything about it on the internet yet. Before the day is over I'm sure everyone will be talking about it. Just remember, you heard it here first!