NASA braces for Rita in Houston

MELBOURNE, Florida (Reuters) -- NASA prepared on Wednesday to evacuate its Johnson Space Center in Houston and turn over control of the international space station to its Russian partners as Hurricane Rita barreled across the Gulf of Mexico with ferocious winds.

Space agency officials were meeting to discuss storm preparations, NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said. But many of the space center's 15,000 government and contractor workers were already taking advantage of NASA's liberal leave policy to heed calls from Texas state officials to evacuate the area, he said.

Read the full story at CNN News...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/09/21/rita.nasa.reut/index.html