LBJ Spins in Grave as NASA Hands ISS Over To Russia

With Hurricane Rita bearing down on key NASA installations, NASA is closing down Johnson Space Center and handing over control of the ISS to the Russian Space Agency.

Primary mission operations of the International Space Station (ISS), now orbiting more than 200 miles above the Earth, will be handed over to Russian flight controllers while the JSC site is closed, they added.

“The emergency plan for the ISS mission control is well understood,” NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield told SPACE.com before the closure.

Hartsfield said that, once implemented, the transfer of mission operations from NASA ISS flight controllers to their Russian counterparts in Korolev, Russia near Moscow could continue through the evening.

“We also have an advisory team of flight controllers who will evacuate to a remote location and provide assistance,” he added.