NASA ordered the evacuation of its Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday and turned over control of the international space station to its Russian partners as Hurricane Rita barreled across the Gulf of Mexico.

Space agency officials said the center would be closed on Thursday and Friday, with "ride-out teams" staying behind to keep watch on critical systems. Rita is expected to make landfall near Houston by Saturday.

Many of the space center's 15,000 government and contractor workers had already left the space center by the time the evacuation order was given, heeding calls from Texas officials to leave the area, NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said.