watching a space shuttle launch?

Has anyone done this?

It is my husband's dream and I want to book a trip to florida to do it.

Anyone have any advice or experience? do they usually take off on the date that is planned? I often hear about delays....

Here is the link of dates... which one would you book? I'm a teacher, so the dates in February, April, late June and August would be best, although I guess if I had my say I'd pick April.

Any help is appreciated.

NASA Space Shuttle Schedule

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

I watched one right from my dads backyard a few lifts ago, he is 15 minutes from the space center.

Unfortunatley, there are a lot of delays. If the weather is off the slightest bit they will cancel the lift off. The one I saw at my dads, the only reason I got to see it was because it went up 10 days later than expected.

If you book, I would give yourself some extra days after the original scheduled lift off.

I know a lot of people go to cocoa beach to watch the liftoffs. I have only went to pops backyard, close enough for me.

It was awesome!!!

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

When I worked down at Disney, a group of us took a road trip to watch a shuttle launch.

We actually just stopped off of the Bee Line Expressway, now known as Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway and just sat on the rocks alongside the water to watch.

I know this was of no help to you, BUT, it is an amazing scene. Ours launched before sunrise so it was pretty cool to see everything light up.

It's not a far ride from Orlando, so you can always stay there and then visit the Center.

Good luck!

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

Thanks for the info! I'd really like to book for the April 19th date.... I go back to work Monday April 25th so HOPEFULLY it will launch by then....

I was going to ask someone where we should stay! How far of a ride is it from Orlando? Do you think we could do Disney for a few days before the launch?

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

I lived in FL for four years about 40 min. south of Cape Canaveral so we saw A LOT of launches. They are pretty cool to watch, we saw a few nighttime launches which were 1000 times cooler than during the day. There are sometime delays due to weather or other circumstances so if you're planning a trip to FL just for that you may end up missing out. I would make seeing the launch part of a bigger vacation so even if the launch is delayed or canceled you still have other things planned while you're down there.

Edit - Make sure you're going down for an actual shuttle launch and not just the rocket launches which are more frequent and less interesting to watch.

Message edited 1/30/2011 10:22:58 AM.

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

That’s a tough call. I've seen 2 at night just parked off the road and sat on the beach. It really is amazing.
We did get tickets to view a launch from the Astronauts Museum but it was cancelled. The tickets are still good but the dates haven't worked out for us.

If you can get a night one that’s the best but I'm pretty sure they are discontinuing it. You should plan a trip to Disney this way if it gets canceled you haven’t wasted a trip.

They get cancelled all the time.

Re: watching a space shuttle launch?

Wwe were planning on waching a launch end of oct early nov when we went to disney world. They recheduled that lanch due to shuttle problems and havent launched it since.

If you want to go, you should stay in titusville which is the closest town to the cape.

Now is the time to see it cause once these last shuttles go, the shuttle program is over.