BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Hazmat crews cleaned up a dangerous chemical that leaked out of a pipe inside a shuttle hangar on Wednesday.
NASA officials said the rocket fuel known as hydrazine is one of the most toxic that crews have had to contend with.
Experts said short-term exposure can lead to seizures, and even put people in comas.
NASA said it is a chemical that it does not want to leave behind as it prepares the shuttles for display in the museums.
Hydrazine is used for steering thrusters in space, but it is so toxic it will burn the skin, and inhaling small amounts can kill, officials said.
So when workers inside one of the shuttle hangers on Tuesday noticed an odd smell, they stopped what they were doing.
"They are all trained to when they smell something like that; note it and we evacuated the orbiter processing facilities," said NASA Spokesman, Mike Curie.
The workers were clearing out pipes once used to load and offload hydrazine from the space shuttles.
NASA officials said the crews knew there could be trace amounts of hydrazine still inside.
"That was the plan, was put in the place to clean out the pipes before they would be removed," said Curie.
There were a few dozen people inside the processing centers when they were evacuated.
No one showed any symptoms from coming in contact with the chemical.
Monitoring equipment picked up trace levels of hydrazine, but they were still above safety standards.
Specialized teams with self-contained breathing units went in early Thursday morning to clear out the remnants of the chemical and open the hangers back up to resume work.
Officials said pouring citric acid over the chemical compound neutralizes it.
WFTV
