Wildfire Blazes Near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Fire behavior during the second day of the Center fire as seen from a helicopter. The fire occurred just south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center headquarters on Merritt Island in Audobon, Florida. This image was taken on April 2, 2013. (Image credit: Michael Good - USFWS)

Firefighters are working to protect NASA's gateway to space, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from a 2,000-acre wildfire, according to Central Florida's News 13.

According to the CFNews 13 report, the fire began Monday (April 1) when lightning triggered the blaze at the Merrit Island National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard County. The wildlife preserve is also home to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which served as the launching site for its space shuttles, Apollo moon missions and other manned spaceflights. [See more wildfire photos from NASA's Kennedy Space Center]

So far no damage from the fire has been reported at NASA's KSC facilities. See the latest wildfire news from CFNews 13

Additional NASA facilities that were protected during the second day of the Center fire were a radar site, a launch tracking camera and the laser range. The fire occurred just south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center headquarters on Merritt Island in Audobon, Florida. This image was taken on April 2, 2013. (Image credit: Michael Good - USFWS)

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Tariq Malik

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, covering human spaceflight, exploration and space science. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter.