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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Witnessing a space launch from just a few miles away is an epic experience with a downside: the knowledge that the rest of your day won’t be as great.

Indeed, watching a launch on television doesn’t prepare you for the spectacle of light and then sound as a giant rocket ignites, incinerates gravitational pull, and flings a payload or people into space. It first becomes the brightest thing in sight, then the loudest thing nearby.

It’s easily one of the greatest shows on Earth, and it’s also become one of the most frequent on the Space Coast.

Unlike 10 or 20 years ago, there is no need to plan a trip months in advance. We live in a new golden age of space travel, with rockets blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Center as often as every week, sometimes more often.

I have had the immense and intense privilege of attending this spectacle four times from Cape Town: the last two launches of the Space shuttle in 2011, the 2018 debut of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavyand that of September launch of AST SpaceMobile’s first five production satellites on a Falcon 9.

You too should enjoy it one day; here’s what you need to know about it.

Mapping of Cape Town

Walt Disney World makes Central Florida a highly competitive travel market, so you can often book a flight to Orlando International Airport, a rental car and accommodation near Cape Town on short notice without paying a fortune.

But once you’ve chosen a launch that seems worth the wait, the launch schedules kept by Florida today and the Space Coast Tourist Office are good starting points: securing a good vantage point will require its own pre-planning, particularly among Kennedy Space Center public viewing areas.

For the two most frequently used launch pads in Cape Town: KSC’s Launch Complex 39A, the historic departure point for every Apollo mission to the Moon and nearly every shuttle launch, and CCSFC’s Launch Complex 40, leased by SpaceX since 2007– the Banana Creek Launch Observation Area, next to KSC’s Apollo Saturn V Center, is the obvious choice.

It offers the second closest viewing of a launch from 39A, just 3.9 miles away, after the KSC press site (which also has a giant countdown to focus your attention, but requires media credentials or a invitation from NASA). Launch Complex 39A’s much less used neighbor 39B is just 3.3 miles from this viewing area, while LC 40 is 6.2 miles away.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers the benefit of inspecting a remaining Saturn V rocket, suspended from the ceiling of this hangar-sized building. Every day admission costs $75 for one day or $89 for two days (with a $10 discount for children ages 3 to 11), but for special events you can expect to pay extra for a launch viewing package .

For example, tickets to attend the October 13 launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper space probe to one of Jupiter’s most interesting moons aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket costs $250. I would have happily paid that, but a) I’m not normal and b) I had already booked a trip that unfortunately didn’t involve any rockets.

Delaware Norththe company that manages the resort, typically sells launch viewing packages a week in advance, but will put them on sale further in advance for “historic” launches, spokesman Russell Bruhn said.

A third observation option at KSC, the LC 39 observation gantry, is 3.4 miles from LC 40 but is currently closed, Bruhn said.

Guides such as Launch Photography constantly point towards Playalinda beach Canaveral National Seashoreeast of Titusville and north of 39A, as the best and cheapest option: a daily drive pass costs $25. If the beach is open for a launch (don’t count on it for crewed missions) during beach hours, the nearest parking lot is 3.6 miles from this platform.

The KSC Visitor Center, 7.5 miles from 39A and 7 miles from 40, should also be on your list. The extra distance is suboptimal and prevents seeing the platforms themselves, but entry to the center (which did not incur an extra charge for the Europa Clipper launch) allows you to inspect an impressive selection of hardware, including the Atlantis shuttle, which closed its doors. the 30-year program in July 2011.

Observing sites from the Apollo-Saturn V Center and locations south of it, such as the town of Cape Canaveral itself, can earn a bonus on certain launches: watching and hearing a return from a Falcon 9 or a Falcon Heavy booster for a landing at SpaceX Landing Zone 1 at CCFS.

Countdown Considerations

Launch viewing logistics must take into account the risk that the launch will be delayed or canceled for a variety of reasons that are difficult to predict. Sensors may indicate a fault in its engines or plumbing, the weather may not cooperate, or you may have the particularly annoying “boat in the box.” shooting range safety violation (e.g. some bozo linger in the offshore area designated as off-limits to sailors during a launch for their own protection).

Study the launch validation criteria for the mission on your calendar carefully. Uncrewed Falcon 9 launches are expected to have the lowest risk of complications, while the criteria for crewed missions are more stringent due to the need to ensure a safe landing of the Dragon capsule if necessary.

NASA’s Space Launch System, on the other hand, was an extremely temperamental machine before launch. Launch in November 2022 from 39B. But with the next SLS launch not scheduled until late 2026, at best, seeing this shuttle-derived rocket fly is not a near-term consideration.

Plan your trip with an extra day in case of scrubbing. And no matter what, don’t buy a basic, non-changeable economy class ticket.

You should also allow enough time to get to your observation point. Prepare some snacks and drinks and enjoy it for a day. And if you plan to return after a morning or afternoon takeoff, expect traffic on the way back to Orlando. After launching the Falcon Heavy, the 45-minute drive from Cape Town to MCO took almost two hours, leading to my spend an extra night in Florida.

Don’t forget to compose a soundtrack suitable for the flight and the journey. It should be mainly Rush, but Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony and that of Gustav Holst The planets are also wise choices.

Photos because it happened

If you’ve never seen a launch before, don’t go crazy taking photos of it. Take a few photos with your phone, but live in the moment: it’s not something to be seen through a smartphone screen or camera viewfinder.

If you brought binoculars, keep them to inspect the platform in the minutes before launch. Put them down and put away your camera as the countdown reaches the last 30 seconds, the breathtaking moments of the experience.

At T-0, the launcher’s engines will instantly become the brightest thing in sight as it lifts off the pad. During a night launch, the rocket may look like a synthetic sun lighting up the clouds from below. But as the vehicle hurtles into the sky, the only thing audible at first will be the cheers of the people around you.

(“Come on (name of rocket or spaceship) come on!” is an appropriate thing to shout.)

Then the sound, a crackling, incessant thunder, rushes toward you, louder and louder. If you are lucky enough to witness the launch of a Pad 39A from the Apollo Saturn V Center, you should not only hear it, but feel it’s like an acoustic avalanche rolling over you.

Next, you should try to take a photo of the rocket shooting through the sky, but be aware that this will only be an approximation of what you experience.

If you have a spare phone or other device capable of recording high-fidelity audio, consider setting it to record noise. If you make a habit of watching the launch – which is a real but expensive prospect after seeing one – then you may obsess over getting the perfect launch photo.

If you look at a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy launch whose boosters return to Landing Zone-1 instead of one of its droneships far offshorewhat to look forward to is not the sight of the thruster re-igniting as it descends but its sonic boom: a loud detonation in the air that could suggest that the descending stage has just exploded.

Other viewing possibilities, perhaps even at home

Beyond Florida, the United States offers a few other launch viewing opportunities: Vandenberg Space Base on the California coast, well north of Los Angeles, heavily used by SpaceX; NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the adjacent Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on the Eastern Shore of Virginiathe American launch facility for The little Electron rocket from Rocket Lab; And SpaceX Starship Launch Facility in Boca Chica, Texas, just north of the Mexican border. These places are, however, more difficult to access than the Space Coast.

But if you live close enough to the Atlantic or Pacific, you might also be able to watch part of a rocket launch right from home if certain elements work in your favor. First, you’ll need a speedboat with a steep bank that hugs the coast instead of heading toward either ocean. You will also need this launch to take place a little after sunset or a little before dawn and a clear sky above.

If all of these circumstances cooperate, set your phone’s alarm to remind you to go outside a few minutes after launching. Because under these conditions you can see the balloon exhaust from the rocket’s second stage high enough in the upper atmosphere for the sun to illuminate it in what space geeks call a “space jellyfish” effect.

It’s a spectacular sight in itself, which you can easily capture with a phone camera. And that just might lead you to start looking for fares to Orlando.