| This page is still being written. It's taking longer than I exected. When I've mentioned it to several people, they wanted to see it right away. So I'll make it available now but please understand that I'm still working on it. --- Ian |
As I said in the introduction on the "Mission to Cape Canaveral" main page, I usually take my vacations in or near California since my immediate family are all in northern California and Nevada. And my favorite location for backpacking trips is the wilderness of Yosemite National Park in central California. Except for business trips, it's been quite a few years since I've had a trip where I actually chose a destination away from the West Coast. And I hadn't been on a completely tourist-type vacation since I've been on my own.
Since I was going to use frequent flyer miles for this trip, it pretty much had to be a trip to the East Coast in order to get the most out of the ticket upgrade. Since I'm interested in the space shuttle, I decided to travel to Florida to watch a shuttle launch.
When I planned the trip, the shuttle launch was the main point. Although remembering the trip, of nearly-equal standing was the visit to AMSAT's lab in Orlando where they're building the Phase-3D Amateur Radio Satellite, which I will use for Ham Radio communications when it's in orbit. I contacted AMSAT ahead of time and knew that a quick tour of the lab was possible. But I didn't plan on any more than that. I was pleasantly surprised by their acceptance of a walk-in volunteer. I stayed for hours.
The only other place in the world where manned space launches occur is the Russian Space Agency's complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan. A second US shuttle launch facility was built at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, north of Los Angeles, but was mothballed in 1988 without ever being used.
You can see any shuttle launch from all over Central Florida, depending on weather conditions. For the best view, you should be fairly close to it. The nearby towns of Titusville and Cape Canaveral swell with onlookers at every launch. But the best view is from the Kennedy Space Center itself.
The car passes are good for all the attempts to launch a specific Space Shuttle mission. You can keep coming back each time for that mission if they have to "scrub" a launch due to weather or equipment problems.
I don't know how quickly they run out but I asked 3 months in advance and got one for STS-86. I also listed a second choice on my request, which is probably a good idea. In my case, they sent a post card that had all the common responses to launch viewing requests, with boxes marked indicating an STS-86 pass was reserved for me and would be mailed about three weeks before launch.
I noticed on the NASA Car Pass web page that STS-89 car passes (the next Mir-docking mission after STS-86) were gone at least two months before launch. So three months may be just barely enough for some missions.
The viewing site opens 4 hours before launch and can close to incoming traffic an hour before launch. The pass needs to be visible on the driver's side of your dash for them to let you in.
Once you're in, they will direct you as to where to park. They pack the cars in bumper-to-bumper in 5 parallel rows. Don't be too picky - I saw some people turn around when they were unhappy with the arrangements. I doubt they fared any better wherever they went. Just take what you get and try to have a good time.
The NASA Causeway viewing site is about 6 miles from Launch Pad 39A and 8-9 miles from Pad 39B. For STS-86, Atlantis was on 39A. One problem we encountered was that the place they parked us did not have direct visibility to Pad 39A because Air Force buildings about two miles away were in the way. So we walked to a spot where we could see it. Since we arrived about 4 hours before launch, I was able to my camera tripod to stake a claim at a front-line spot, which seemed to be respected by others who left me enough room for the picture-taking I obviously intended to do. (Most people seemed to be in very good moods.) Folding chairs are recommended if you can arrange them. I sat on the ground or stood most of the time.
Important tip: Bring mosquito repellent. This is standard advice in Florida anyway. At the time I was there, it was especially important because Brevard County (where KSC is) along with most Central Florida counties was under a health warning for Encephilitis being carried by mosquitoes. I had my own repellent because I saw the warning on CNN six weeks earlier. NASA provided repellent for people who didn't have any.
Just to set your expectations correctly, this is not the same place you see on television with the big countdown clock in front of the water. That's at the Press Site, next to the Vehicle Assembly Building, about 3 miles from Pad 39A and 5 miles from 39B. There's also a VIP-only viewing area north of the VAB for astronaut's family and friends which is about 3 miles from both pads. They both have better views while the shuttle is still on the pad and can hear the rocket noise sooner.
The NASA Causeway site is probably an ideal place to contain the civilian crowds because the road has a grass area alongside it and is otherwise surrounded by alligator-infested water. It also keeps the civilian traffic jams away from the parts of KSC where people have work to do. (Despite the reasons they say about lack of interest, I think traffic jams in work areas is probably a big reason they they don't have civilian passes for shuttle landings.)
However, any place where you can see the launch pad, and therefore see main engine ignition before liftoff, is an excellent viewing place. From the NASA Causeway, a person with 20/20 or corrected vision can see (on night launches) light from the sparks used to burn off excess Hydrogen at T-10 seconds. Main engine ignition is even more obvious at T-5 seconds. Then solid rocket ignition lights up the night sky like daylight. Once the shuttle lifts off, it quickly becomes visible all across Central Florida but the people up close really do have the best view.
As an example where weather delayed a launch, STS-71 in 1995 was the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission. Any time that the shuttle has to rendezvous with something already in orbit (whether it's Mir, the Hubble Space Telescope, or beginning in 1998, the International Space Station) it has only a 10-minute launch window instead of the usual 2-hour, 30-minute launch window. Since it takes more than 10 minutes for a thunderstorm to move past the area, one storm can easily cause a launch to be scrubbed. Since thunderstorms are most likely in the late afternoon, STS-71's late-afternoon launch time contributed to several delays:
Obviously the amount of delays you can plan for depends on how long of a trip you can plan. When planning my trip, I had STS-71's delays in mind and left a week and a half in my schedule to keep coming back to KSC if necessary. As the plan went, if the shuttle went up on time, I'd have a list of other things to do in Florida.
Now that you've gotten yourself prepared for these possibilities, look back at the bright side. All eight of the launches in 1997 were "on time" (during the announced launch window), six of them at the very second the window opened. That made 1997 the best year yet for shuttle launch viewing.
Although one of the three gates listed as available is at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, I was especially doubtful of that actually being open at the time because the Cassini space probe was on a launch pad there and some anti-nuclear activists had been in the news threatening to sabotage it because of its Plutonium power supply. I expected that gate to be closed - I don't know if it was. In any case, I would expect the Air Force entrance to have more security and to be more likely to be closed for reasons that civilians would not be aware of ahead of time. If you can use the NASA entrances, they're probably a better choice. But don't forget that KSC itself has a secured perimeter like a military base so you should only go to the visitor center and places your pass directs you to.
My pass said that the gates open 4 hours before launch and can close 1 hour before launch. It also said to expect heavy traffic. Remember that people may be driving toward the nearby towns to watch too, so roads could be clogged way outside KSC if you wait too long to get there.
I had a plan for how to deal with this for the STS-86 launch, but it only worked because the launch was in the late evening. The launch was to be at 10:34 PM, which meant the gates would open around 6:30 PM. My friend and I went to the KSC Visitor Center in the early afternoon so that we would already be at KSC when the traffic jams developed outside it. It's much better to wait in an IMAX movie theater or a KSC tour bus than in a traffic jam. It made it long day but it worked very well.
If you can't do something like that, possibly because the visitor center hours may not help with the time of your mission's launch, leave early to get there ahead of a lot of the traffic. Also note that the visitor center hours can be different on launch days. I had a difficult time getting information on their hours until I phoned them on the morning of launch day. Their web page and tourist brochures almost made it sound like they might be closed on launch days. But it looks like they were just being excessively careful on their wording that they can't guarantee what their schedule will be on a launch day.
When we got there, they were telling people (who didn't have passes) that since they were in, they could stay there at the visitor center past its 7PM closing time and watch the launch from the "Space Mirror" area if they wanted to.
The traffic jam on the way out after the launch was yet another story. There was an accident blocking traffic at the intersection of Challenger Memorial Parkway (Highway 407) and Columbia Blvd (Highway 405.) Traffic was still very slow on the Bee Line Expressway (Highway 528 toll road) to South Orlando. Although I heard the next day from an Orlando resident that traffic moved along very quickly for him on Highway 50, the non-toll usually-slower road to Downtown Orlando. It's probably worth keeping in mind - do what the locals do. He said he got back into Orlando by midnight. I got to my hotel in South Orlando at 2:30AM. And my friend still had another half hour to go to get to his home in Lakeland. By that time, Atlantis had already completed three orbits around the world since the time we watched it launch at 10:34PM.
2-3 weeks before launch, NASA issues a press release with the officially-planned launch date for the mission. When they do that, they've talked about it long and hard, they think they can do that date and they're really going to try for it. The status reports should already have given you a good idea when it'll be. In the case of STS-86, I lucked out by getting a tip from the "L-5 Week" and "L-4 Week" status on the crew's personal web page that they were getting pretty sure that September 25th would be the launch date. It was a gamble but I had to go for something so I used that to make my airline reservations, being careful to avoid fares with restrictions on schedule changes. The lucky part was that it turned out to be correct.
Important tip: If another shuttle crew makes their own web page like the STS-86 crew did, watch it closely - that's as close as you're going to get to inside information.
Once you're in Central Florida, watch for last-minute changes in the local media. (Or continue to use KSC's web site if you have web access while traveling.) I checked the Orlando Sentinel daily newspaper since I stayed in Orlando.
The disadvantage to this plan is if you plan to visit anyone who lives in the area. You have to let them know what you're doing, and that too many delays in the shuttle launch could mean unpredictable shuffling of your schedule. Plan to keep in touch with them when you're in the area - as long as they remain informed participants in the plans, that's probably the best you can do. Actually, don't forget that a NASA Causeway car pass is good for the whole vehicle. If you know people in the area, invite them to come with you to the launch! I invited several people and one accepted. (It was "just another rocket" to the others.)
When I started researching for this trip, I thought I'd have trouble figuring out what else to do if the shuttle went up on time. After just a little research, it became clear that my 12-day trip was not anywhere near enough to see everything. I made a long list anyway.
Between Orlando, Tampa, and the Space Coast (Titusville/Cocoa/Cape Canaveral), there are lots of things to see and do in the Central Florida area. And if you can get away from there, there's also Southern Florida. One of the books I read about the area explained a phenomenon that locals call the "Orlando Wall", where Floridians observed that as more tourist attractions were built in the Orlando area, the fewer tourists planned trips that went south of there - most of them just used their vacation time there and drove back north again. The arrival of Disney World in Orlando 25 years ago basically completed the wall effect. But destinations such as Miami and the Florida Keys are still there if you can fit them in your travel plans.
I ended up deciding to get a 5-day ticket to Disney World, based on the advice that the days never expire but they do go up in price every year. Apparently most large corporations and credit unions have Disney discounts, and I got one through my employer. (Ask for a "Magic Kingdom Club" card.) Then I got the ticket at a Disney Store in San Jose before I left. The 5-day "World Hopper" passes include 10 days of unlimited use of the water parks and some entertainment beginning after your first use of the ticket. Since that stuff does expire, that's mostly what I used on this trip. Next time I go to Florida, I'll probably use more of the theme park days left on the ticket but I'll put more empahsis on the non-Disney attractions that I missed this time, such as Universal Studios in Orlando, Busch Gardens in Tampa and the non-Disney water parks.
Also, be sure to visit one of the beaches in Florida if you don't live near a beach or if the ocean water near you is too cold to swim in. Where I live in Northern California the ocean currents come from Alaska so you can guess that we don't stay in the water long here. On my trip, I went to Siesta Beach on Siesta Key while visiting my grand aunt in Sarasota. The warm water is a treat that we're just not used to over here. I knew that the Gulf of Mexico has tropical warm water. But the experience is worthwhile to be able to just walk right into the ocean water and enjoy it.
(writing in progress - please be patient)