Hurricane Ian battered Cuba and turned toward the west coast of Florida on Tuesday (Sept. 27) as satellites track the harrowing storm from space.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Ian was churning across the Gulf of Mexico as Category 3 hurricane and being tracked by the GOES-16/GOES-East weather satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The satellite captured striking video and images of Hurricane Ian after it crossed western Cuba.
"Re-strengthening is expected later today through Wednesday [Sept. 28]," NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) officials wrote in an afternoon update. "Ian is forecast to approach the west coast of Florida as an extremely dangerous major hurricane."
NOAA hurricane forecasters wrote that Hurricane Ian was expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and pass west of the Florida Keys Tuesday night. It should reach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday or Wednesday night, NHC officials said. The storm is forecast to make U.S. landfall just south of Sarasota, Florida, Wednesday night, according to the New York Times.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Hurricane Ian was moving northward at about 10 mph (17 kph), with maximum sustained winds reaching speeds of nearly 120 mph (195 kph), NHC officials said.
Heavy rainfall was already reported across parts of Florida, with state officials issuing evacuation orders for some coastal regions, according to the New York Times.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral along Florida's eastern coast, mission managers ordered the agency's Artemis 1 moon rocket rolled back into its Vehicle Assembly Building so that it could shelter from the approaching storm inside the cavernous 52-story hangar.
The Artemis 1 moon rocket, NASA's first Space Launch System booster, stands 322 feet tall (98 meters) and was waiting its first uncrewed test flight after weeks of delays and two previous launch attempts.
