"PLANNING" to watch a rocket launch

eman1200

eman1200

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bro do you even lift
I get it, they get canceled for one reason or another lots of times, but as far as planning to watch a launch in florida, what's involved? do they actually sell tickets or something? are there other events before/during/after you can do? my folks say they want to go to a launch so I figure I'll try to plan something. anyone done it before and can chime in? thx
 
eman1200 said:
I get it, they get canceled for one reason or another lots of times, but as far as planning to watch a launch in florida, what's involved? do they actually sell tickets or something? are there other events before/during/after you can do? my folks say they want to go to a launch so I figure I'll try to plan something. anyone done it before and can chime in? thx
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My brother watches them from his front yard. I’ll text him to see if he has any suggestions on good places to go. The thing is, you don’t have to be very close.
 
Matthew said:
My brother watches them from his front yard. I’ll text him to see if he has any suggestions on good places to go. The thing is, you don’t have to be very close.
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thanks! we'd like to be as close as possible. maybe even stay at half fast's house and eat his food and drink his beer.
 
eman1200 said:
thanks! we'd like to be as close as possible. maybe even stay at half fast's house and eat his food and drink his beer.
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Welcome as you would be, I’m too far from the coast for a good view.

Best launch I ever saw was when my BIL’s dad (an engineer at NASA) got me a couple of causeway passes for an early morning shuttle launch. A buddy and I were standing next to the press area. Incredible and awe-inspiring.

If you can rent an apartment or condo along the Indian River with a view to the east, that’s about as good as can be.
 
Was in Sebastian a few years ago and saw one from there. Some sound, couldn't feel it, but was cool to see.
 
When I first moved here (Daytona Beach area), I saw a night launch of the shuttle. HOLY COW! AMAZING and all those other capital letter words. It was like the whole world lit up, or like a huge fireworks display where they lit off everything at once. And we were about 60 miles away.

Since then we have seen scores of other launches. Ho Hum. It's like a slow moving tracer bullet. And even if they do launch on the day they plan, clouds often obscure much of the flight path. Perhaps if we were 50 miles closer it would be more exciting. But we did enjoy touring the museum several years ago. That was really cool. Especially the Saturn V. Damn that thing was big. But I was quite disappointed in the size of the Apollo capsules as well as the size of the mockup of the control rooms that looked so big and crowded on TV. I would suggest planning to go see the museum, and if the launch actually happens, count that as a small bonus.
 
I saw a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg. Not the launch itself but the night flight which went directly over the house. It was super eerie seeing the bright plume travel across the sky.
 
eman1200 said:
thanks! we'd like to be as close as possible. maybe even stay at half fast's house and eat his food and drink his beer.
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This is what I got back from my brother just now:

“Jetty park, up by the port is pretty popular. I think it’s free. There are some other spots on Merritt Island, across from the cape also, but I’ve never been to those. Coco Beach Pier is also popular, but I think there’s a parking charge there.”
 
Matthew said:
This is what I got back from my brother just now:

“Jetty park, up by the port is pretty popular. I think it’s free. There are some other spots on Merritt Island, across from the cape also, but I’ve never been to those. Coco Beach Pier is also popular, but I think there’s a parking charge there.”
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thanks mang! I'm not too worried about fees, I'll just charge it to the underhill's half fast's account
 
eman1200 said:
thanks mang! I'm not too worried about fees, I'll just charge it to the underhill's half fast's account
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Along with a steak sandwich and a steak sandwich.

Note - The whole thing from start to effectively over from the spectator’s POV takes about 60 seconds.
 
Best launches to watch are ~ one hour after sunset. Rocket is going up into daylight. That's when you get the best "jellyfish". Also pay attention to the direction of launch. You don't want to be to the north if the launch is to the south and vice versa. I live north of KSC (and north of @JOhnH I think) and get a good view of north launches. KTIX is closest if you're thinking of flying down. View from there is likely decent. Not sure if they have any fees or restrictions on launch days.

Here's the schedule (includes other places besides KSC) https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

Someday I'm going to go up in my plane and try to see one from the air.
 
Best launch I saw was on my friends Shamrock in ship channel about 3 miles east of Cocoa beach. Next best we were alligator hunting in the east part of Lake Jesup about 2 am. Sky lit up like a sunrise. Then the sound came. Little to no wind with a thin cloud cover at about 20,000'.
 
Watching a launch directly is on my bucket list...I've only seen them via an infrared detector in GEO (Defense Support Program). Been involved in the design, development, and on-orbit testing of more than a dozen satellites, but never have gotten to see a launch.

On my last program, the program manager "suggested" to her husband that the family should take a vacation on the space coast during a particular week.....

One of my former co-workers lives about a hundred miles from Canaveral, he's an astronomy buff and catches some great time-lapse images.
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Ron Wanttaja
 
Hang 4 said:
Someday I'm going to go up in my plane and try to see one from the air.
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I caught one from the air because the PCL at LPC was out. It wasn't worth it. It is just a fast moving bright spot and you have to keep scanning for traffic and avoiding restricted areas.

My suggestion is to catch one that is doing a return-to-launch-site landing of the booster. When watching from Lompoc, the booster disappears behind the hill on landing just as as the sonic boom hits.

My first time watching a SpaceX launch from Lompoc, just after launch one of the other pilots jumped in his plane to take off ahead of the rush. The rest of just laughed and stuck around to catch the landing.
 
When I first moved to florida (Clearwater then) I kept telling myself that I should go over for a launch, but kept talking myself out of it because they "always" get cancelled...
Then one day, I think it was a Friday on the way to work I heard a report that a launch was scheduled for the weekend...Something like 2AM or 4AM on either Saturday or Sunday.... so knee jerk reaction, I'm going! Told a friend at work, and he said, "I want to go too!"
So we drove over, had no idea where to go, found a place along US1 to park, followed a short trail through the woods and plopped our lawn chairs in the edge of the water. Pretty much nothing between us and the shuttle but water and marsh.
Perfectly clear night...and wow! just wow!

and in the case it was far more than 60 seconds.... I tracked that thing till it dropped below the horizon. I rekon it was over England about then!

Also, I agree with @Hang 4...well I've not seen any from close to the launch, but from up here in the Jacksonville area I've seen a couple right after sunset that were pretty epic as it passed by on Northerly trajectories. Kind of an aura surrounding it.

I've never done the buy the ticket for kennedy space center thing...
I've read that, depending on the launch, sometimes Playalinda Beach is open and they say that's as close as you can get.
Also, if you are a camper - Manatee Hammock Campground is very close to KTIX... sort of walkable, and it has a pretty good view. I've seen a shuttle or two go up from there and some small Spacex stuff. I took off work to go there two or three times for the Artemis launch attempts but they scrubbed every time. It's mostly an RV campground but they have tent camping too
 
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Ok, have been to a few launches, so here's my take:

This point is easy to access and has a pretty good line of sight to Launch Complex 39 (used by SpaceX for a bunch of stuff).
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Kirk Point Riverside Park · Titusville, Florida

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You can also try to get on the free portion of the Causeway, here:
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NASA Causeway Bridge · Titusville, Florida

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If you're willing to spend money, get a ticket to the KSC visitor complex. They have a launch viewing area that is good, but you can't see the rocket on the pad. Nice view after lift-off.
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28°31'33.2"N 80°40'47.7"W

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Pay more money (if tickets aren't sold out) and you can view the launch from here:
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Banana Creek Launch Viewing · Kennedy Space Center, FL

maps.app.goo.gl maps.app.goo.gl

There are a couple other nice spots if you know people at NASA or SpaceX, but these are your main choices otherwise.

If this is your first launch, I'd recommend getting tickets to visit the KSC and at least watching it from the viewing area next to the museum.

This is how it would look for a Falcon 9:
Typical wide field of view
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With a decent zoom lens
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Of course, the bigger the rocket, the greater the experience (that's what she said). SLS launching Artemis I, viewed from the park in the first link, with a bit of optical cheating (but the view was still absolutly stunning with the naked eye):
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If I were going to travel for a launch, I'd be looking into the possibility of going to see a starship launch down in TX.
 
Brad W said:
If I were going to travel for a launch, I'd be looking into the possibility of going to see a starship launch down in TX.
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Definitely don't get too close to that one.
Apparently that design group didn't get the meno that they're not supposed to use the term "EXPLODED VIEW" on their drawings and presentations.
 
A “few” years back I watched a number of shuttle launches. There was / is a McDonalds on the mainland just north of the bridge right on the water with a great view of the launch pads.
 
We watch launches from home, about 75 miles south. Southbound launches at dusk are often spectacular. When we first moved here seven years ago, there’d be half a dozen or more couples at the end of the street watching. These days it’s often just us, the launches have become so commonplace. It’s really cool as we look north and see the orange glow above the treeline and then the rocket comes into view. It’s just an orange dot from this far, until it gets well above the horizon and the trail lengthens.

On evening launches, when there is practically no traffic within several miles, the sound reaches us about nine minutes after the launch. It’s a deep, low rumble, and when conditions are right we can feel it. Even this far away it can rattle windows (we have the ancient single-pane crank-open windows). The sonic boom from the boosted returning sometimes hits, too. It’s just a quick “whump!”.

I still get excited by every launch. This is the stuff we read and dreamed about as kids. It will always be wondrous and new to me.
 
I saw 3 shuttle launches. 1 day, 1 night and one while flying.

The 2 from the ground were from about 30 miles away. And still loud. The one at night lit up the area like daylight. The one from the air was from 8 inches outside the restricted area. Ok, maybe a little further away. Just a small speck of light surrounded by a lot of smoke that did not take long to go through our altitude, 2500MSL. Still impressive to see once, though.
 
Some hotels have restaurants / bars with balcony’s where you can watch them.
 
Zeldman said:
The one from the air was from 8 inches outside the restricted area. Ok, maybe a little further away. Just a small speck of light surrounded by a lot of smoke that did not take long to go through our altitude, 2500MSL. Still impressive to see once, though.
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Flew by Wallops a few years ago to watch a night launch of an ISS resupply mission.
Boy, that thing turned night into day.

There were a few other pilots that had the same idea, one of them called Wallops tower to ask if the launch was still GO.
They gave us an accurate T minus time.
 
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I was down there visiting a friend when there was an EARLY morning Falcon 9 launch.

From where we were staying it was out of the hotel, take a left and go to the water, park and watch.
 
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