JSC is evacuating the Mission Control Center in anticipation of the monster storm that may be about to hit them. One wonders what would happen if there was an Orbiter in orbit right now–I don’t think they could just hand that off to the Russians. It makes one question the wisdom of putting a supposedly vital function in such a vulnerable area. There are good geographic reasons for the location of KSC, and Michoud, but having the manned spaceflight center in Houston is an historical accident, because they got a donation from Rice for the land (and it probably didn’t hurt that LBJ happened to be from Texas).

There is a reason, after all, that NORAD is inside the Mountain, and it might make sense for NASA mission control to be in a similarly-secure place.

On the other hand, it also begs the question of whether or not mission control, sixties style, is really needed, or if it’s just a relic of the way we happened to do it then. That space systems are still designed to require the support of hundreds of people on the ground says that maybe there’s something wrong with the way we design them. And it’s not obvious that the new architecture is going to address that.