CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASAs coastal Florida spaceport and other agency centers across the nation reopened Thursday, but it wasnt exactly business as usual in the wake of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C.
Two days after hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, federal government and contractor employees returned to work amid tight security at the agencys Washington, D.C., headquarters and 10 field centers around the nation.
"Were all open for business," said NASA spokesman Brian Dunbar. "But certainly security is heightened."
Here at Kennedy Space Center, some 12,000 people faced hour-long traffic jams at perimeter gates to the coastal spaceport, a restricted federal enclave that covers 140,000 acres (56,000 hectares).
Cars, trucks and vans were backed up for 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) outside the main gate to the space center, which is the homeport to NASAs $8 billion space shuttle fleet.
Random checks were being made inside vans and other large vehicles, and only employees with permanent NASA, Air Force and contractor identification badges were allowed to enter the center.
Those with temporary credentials had to arrange escorts with employees holding permanent identification badges.
Meanwhile, the KSC Visitor Complex which attracts about 3 million tourists per year and is the fifth largest tourist attraction in Florida will remain closed through at least Friday.
The visitor complex operates bus tours that ferry tourists around historic sites and launch facilities at KSC and nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the latter of which is the U.S. militarys primary east coast launch base.
The visitor complex, KSC and NASAs nine other field centers were closed to all but essential personnel Tuesday after the terrorist attacks, which brought down the World Trade Centers twin 110-story towers and did severe damage to the Pentagon.
NASA headquarters reopened Wednesday. Among those agency facilities that were back in business Thursday: Johnson Space Center in Houston, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
The crew aboard the International Space Station, meanwhile, continued work aboard the outpost, which is circling some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above the planet.
U.S. astronaut Frank Culbertson and two Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin are preparing for the planned launch from Kazakhstan Friday and the arrival at the station Sunday of a Russian docking compartment that will double as an airlock at the 17-story complex.
Launched to the station last month, Culbertson and his colleagues are in the midst of a four-month research tour aboard the outpost. The trio is due to return to Earth in December aboard shuttle Endeavour, which remains scheduled for launch on Nov. 29.
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