Waves are even felt in space - The Kibo lab on the International Space Station is taking directions from Houston since their base in Tsukuba was heavily damaged in the earthquake.
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Japan Earthquake & Tsunami | Earthquake Shuts Down Japan's Space Station Center | International Space Station, Japanese Astronauts | Space.com
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Earthquake Forces Closure of Japan's Space Station Control Center by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
Japan has shut down its primary space center — including a control room for part of the International Space Station — after the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the country today (March 11).
JAXA, Japan's space agency, evacuated its Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Japan, following an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that have devastated the country.
The space center oversees Japan's Kibo laboratory on the space station, as well the JAXA's unmanned cargo ships that deliver supplies to the orbiting lab. Flight controllers with Tsukuba's Space Station Integration and Promotion Center have been sent home for safety, JAXA officials said.
A small team of JAXA flight controllers was visiting NASA's Johnson Space Center at the time of the quake and is available to provide assistance should it be required, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com.
NASA flight controllers at the Houston center and at a payload operations center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are overseeing the station's Japanese systems, Humphries said.
Japan also has a rocket complex used to launch spacecraft and satellites into orbit called the Tanegashima Space Center on the island of Tanegashima in the country's southern region. Sagara said that space center has come through the earthquake relatively unscathed.
Sagara said that the spaceport is relatively far from the earthquake’s main destruction zones. It is also built on top of a cliff, offering protection from any tsunami waves, she added.
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