Hurricane Dorian is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in history and has been battering the Bahamas for more than a day. Although it has weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, Dorian continues to hammer the Bahamas with 120mph winds. NASA astronauts orbiting in the International Space Station (ISS) have been documenting the extent of Hurricane Dorian’s destruction.
The size of the storm was impossible to miss to NASA astronauts looking down on Earth from the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague tweeted: ”You can feel the power of the storm when you stare into its eye from above,
And another image was captioned: “Stay safe everyone!”
His colleague Christina Koch tweeted: #HurricaneDorian as seen from @Space_Station earlier today.
READ MORE: Hurricane Dorian map update: What time will Florida be hit?
“Hoping everyone in its path stays safe.”
Dorian’s Florida approach has put the NASA Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center on high alert.
The space centre yesterday called in a skeleton crew of 120 workers, called a “Ride Out Team,” to monitor the Hurricane Dorian’s effects on the spaceport and protect spaceflight hardware from damage.
The NASA team will oversee the space centre during Hurricane Dorian from the Launch Control Centre near the Pad 39 launch complex.
READ MORE: Heartbreaking Hurricane Dorian footage shows woman beg for life
Photos from the NASA complex showed Kennedy Space Center workers with camping backpacks and even an inflatable mattress, blankets and a space shuttle plush toy.
The space agency tweeted: “With Hurricane Dorian forecast to bring hurricane conditions to the Kennedy Space Center in just a few hours, 120 members of the “Ride Out Team” reported to the Launch Control Center to monitor and mitigate possible damage to spaceflight hardware
Another post said: “Meet Madi: She’s riding out #HurricaneDorian in our Launch Control Center, where our firing rooms are.
“Once its safe to go out, this industrial hygienist and her team immediately do a post storm hazard analysis at KSC. And if you can’t tell, she loves @NASA!”
Hurricane Dorian is currently 30 miles north-east of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island and approximately 100 miles east of Florida’s West Palm Beach.
The National Hurricane Center urged residents to continue to shelter as they continued to be hit by the hurricane’s “eyewall”.
Dorian’s strongest winds are usually close to the eye of the storm.
The National Hurricane Center has confirmed Dorian is “continuing to thrash” Grand Bahama and would cause “extreme destruction” into this morning.
