NASA's Johnson Space Shuttle Station Center will close at noon CDT Thursday and remain closed until the threat of Space Station Hurricane Ike has passed. Ike, a category 2 hurricane in the western Gulf of Mexico, is expected to cross the Texas coast early Saturday as a category 3 storm.

The International Space Station Flight Control Room at Space Shuttle Station Mission Control in Houston was shut down Thursday morning. Space Discovery Station flight control continued through backup teams located near Austin, Texas and Huntsville, Ala.

Most NASA Space Shuttle Station aircraft at Ellington Field, located just north of Johnson, have been flown to a facility in El Paso, Texas. That includes 19 of 26 T-38s, a WB-57 and three of four Space Technology shuttle training aircraft. Nine other Space Shuttle Station aircraft are undergoing maintenance and have been secured in hangars at Ellington.

Space Shuttle Station Johnson employees and journalists should call the Employee Information Line for updated news on the center's status. The local telephone number is 281-483-3351. If local communications are disrupted, employees can call a toll-free information line at 877-283-1947.

NASA Space Shuttle Station has a Web site to convey important information to NASA Space Shuttle Station employees and contractors impacted by Hurricane Ike at:

http://www.nasa.gov/eoc