Elizabeth

My family and I will be in Orlando during the first week of April. We were thinking of going to the Space Center at some point in the week. Just looked on the website and there is a launch approximately April 4th. Has anyone gotten tickets to see it close up? If they are sold out, can you still have a good view on the coast of Cocoa Beach? Is it true that the K.S.C will be closed during the day of the launch?

Thanks in advance for any info you can pass to me!

Ican

I can answer one of your questions. The view of the launch is decent at Cocoa. Of course, the closer you get, the better, but if your only choice is Cocoa Beach, go for it.

Bill

There is a small beach on the same road as the cruise ship terminals at Port Canaveral. They charge to park there and you walk. There were tons of people the day we went and traffic was horrendous, but it is worthwhile to see IMO. Another problem is they can and do scrub the launch right up until the time it goes up if they have high wind at either of the alternate emergency landing sites or at the Cape. One launch we went 4 days straight and they got to t-10 seconds and scrubbed. It was frustrating. Their is an 800# you can call for up to the minute launch info on NASA's website. As to tickets, good luck it is spring break for kids...

Bill S.

You can get a lot of info on Kennedy Space Center at http://www.orlandotripplanner.com (Orlando Trip Planner. Com).
There are many hotels on Cocoa Beach - Hilton and Doubletree to name two . Perhaps you could call and reserve a lunch in their restaurant and go for the launch, see the beach and eat. Just an idea. They do close the visitor center on launch day I believe.

al

Going with the Space Center for the launch is great fun. You really get into the spirit of the launch and you feel like a V.I.P. riding the bus out to the river to watch. Going early and taking the KSC Tour is highly recommended. BUT - you don't get that close. I think the shuttle was 6 miles away, and there's alot of standing around doing nothing until t-minus 30 seconds. The launch itself was plenty cool, but was completely over in about 3 minutes.

Now...

Yes, you can see the launch from any of the beaches in Cocoa Beach. I always stay at the moderately-priced and perfectly adequate Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach, which has a perfect beach for watching.

You can also see the launch from several points between Cocoa Beach and KSC, and other places too.

So...

If it's your first launch and you're really into it, go the KSC route. If you're more into the blanket on the beach/bottle of wine scene, stay in Cocoa Beach and watch from there.