NASA must brace itself - and this time, it's not because it's about to launch a rocket into space.
The rise in global sea levels threaten to flood NASA's launch sites. Last month, NASA scientists issued a statement saying "rising sea levels are unavoidable and more dangerous than thought," reports Christian Science Monitor.
NASA warns in a statement that the rise in sea levels, brought about by climate change, will eventually disrupt a handful of NASA launch sites located along coastlines, as per CNN. Florida's Kennedy Space Center and other similar sites may need to "be retrofitted or even moved inland," the agency predicts.
Business Standard reports that the global mean sea level has risen by eight inches (20 centimetres) since 1870 and it is presently the fastest in 2,000 years. The said rate has notably doubled in the past twenty years.
"Every NASA center has its own set of vulnerabilities, and some are more at risk than others," NASA climatologist Cynthia Rosenzweig said on NASA's website. "But sea level rise is a very real challenge for all of the centers along the coast," she adds.
NASA also conveys that more than half of its infrastructure stands within 16 feet of sea level.
Among the bases at risk is the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, set on coastal marshland about 5 to 10 feet above sea level, which is only a several hundred feet far from the Atlantic Ocean. Last year, a protective dune not too far from the launch pads collapsed prompting NASA to address the sustainability of their coastal facilities.
"Kennedy Space Center may have decades before waves are lapping at the launch pads," coastal geologist John Jaeger of the University of Florida said in NASA's post. "Still, when you put expensive, immovable infrastructure right along the coast, something's eventually got to give," he remarks.
Similarly threatened are the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Langley Research Center, Ames Research Center, and Johnson Space Center - all of which are located between 5 to 40 feet above mean sea level, CNN reports.
NASA explains the flexible adaptation pathways it intends to adopt,
"People with skills in civil chemical engineering urban planning, real estate, facilities construction and maintenance - must now weigh their options and develop long-range plans. In some places, they will need to design smarter buildings; in others, they will retrofit and harden old infrastructure. If a facility must stay within sight of the water, then maybe the important laboratories, storage, or assembly rooms should not be on the ground floor. For the launch facilities, which must remain along the shore, beach replenishment, sea wall repair, and dune building may become part of routine maintenance."
$66 billion to $106 billion worth of coastal property is predicted to sit below sea level by 2050, according a recent study cited by NASA, as told by Business Standard.