Space Shuttle launch questions
 

Hi folks,

I'm thinking of taking atrip to see the shuttle launch on July 1st. May even turn this into a good old fashioned road trip, driving from PIT.

Any recommendations or tips would be appreciated. I'm not sure where we would stay and I don't mind staying far away from the Space center and driving in the day of the launch.

I spent some time on www.nasa.gov and these are their recommendations for viewing areas:

Along the Indian River on U.S. Highway 1, especially in Titusville.

The Beach Line Expressway, also called State Road 528. The portions of the Bee Line crossing over the Indian River (the Bennett Causeway) and the Banana River are good vantage points.

Off State Road A1A along the Atlantic Ocean in Cocoa Beach.

Jetty Park (321) 783-7111 at Port Canaveral, on the Atlantic Ocean just south of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station border. Both Space Shuttle and expendable launch vehicle liftoffs can be viewed from here. The park is open all day year-round. Admission fees are $5 per automobile and $7 per recreational vehicle.

Thanks for any help!

I've been to two launches and it sounds like you have been given a list of key sites.

To find a hotel--and you might have to grab a room ASAP--I'd go onto the Hilton site; enter the city, state of interest (i.e., Titusville, FL) and list all brands by distance.

If you haven’t seen a launch before, it’s really breathtaking. It’s one of the few times that I have felt good about paying taxes.

I think you know already that many launches get scrubbed, so you’re already managing your expectations well.

Enjoy the trip!

I just heard about it too. We'll be in Disney and will be the second time we're lucky enough to be in the area when a shuttle takes off.

Unfortunately, they scrub the takeoffs very often. We actually never go to see it the first time because the cancelled the first launch & rescheduled for around midnight. We didn't bother staying awake because we figured they would cancel it too.

They didn't. The people in the area said it's a site to see when it takes off at night. The sky lights up.

We're going to try to drive over to see it after making sure it's actually going up.

In this case, this launch SHOULD be scrubbed because the chief safety officer and chief engineer said that the problems of the gas tanks have NOT been resolved. They recommended that the launch be postponed because they don't want another Columbia disaster. Yet they have been overuled. When Allan Shephard went into space in the early 60s, everybody had to be in agreement, not a majority. But these are different times. They want 16 trips from the remaining space shuttles before 2010 when the fleet is scheduled to be retired. I think they are risking people's lives for the purposes of deadlines, but that can be discussed in Omni....

I've spent most of my career in the space program and have been at the Cape for my share of launches. I agree with the locations people have suggested. Virtually all of the Shuttle launches these days dock with the International Space Station, which is inclined in about a 53 degree orbit. So, the Shuttle flies north hugging the coastline as close as range safety will permit. It you can get close to Titusville, you will see more of the ascent than at Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach, which is south of the Kennedy Space Center. From the south, you'll generally be looking up the back end as it ascends away from you.

Also, remember that tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of your closest friends will we doing the same thing, so get out there VERY early. Getting there at 8-9AM for a launch window that opens at 3:45 PM is not too early.

Download the ascent profile from either nasa.gov or www.spaceflightnow.com so you'll be able to tell what's happening during the ascent. Bring a stopwatch and start it right at T-0 and you'll be able to predict when events happen. Even though the Challenger failure happened 20 years ago, I still count to "132" during a shuttle launch. "132" is the nominal number of seconds that the solid rocket boosters burn. (For this mission, the solids burn for 123 seconds.) During the burn of the solids, the crew has virtually no chance of aborting and landing safely. Also, bring a portable radio, because the local radio stations will be covering the launch. Spaceflightnow is also an excellent source of information on launch day. They have a reporter with a laptop in the control room who publishes a real-time blog. If you have wireless capability, bring your laptop or handheld with you. Another important milestone is that the crew goes to the launch pad about 2 1/2 hours before launch. The launch window is only ten minutes, so if the crew hasn't arrived at the pad around 1:15 PM, they aren't going to launch that day.

Of course, this is thunderstorm season in Florida. They are trying to launch in late afternoon -- the absolute worst time during thunderstorm season. There are severe storm and lightning launch constraints, so be prepared to do this for several days in a row, especially for a mission that has only a 10-minute window. Having said this, I hope you stick with it. I've been involved in probably a hundred or more launches over the last 30 years and I still get pumped.

I went out to the nasa site to try to get tickets for the launch. No such luck. They're already gone. However, there are tickets available for viewing from the Astronauts Hall of Fame, which is right outside the space center.

Then I started thinking about it.

3:45pm on a holiday weekend in July and temps around 95 with 95% humidity and decided that the best place to watch the launch might be either from in a pool at disney or on TV.

I didn't even consider having to leave at 8am because of crowds. (thanks flysway2much).

Given your experience with the space program, why would they choose to have the launch at the worst time of day during thunderstorm season?

They have to phase the launch to correctly match up with the orbit of the space station. They shoot for the "minimum energy rendezvous" which means they leave margin for error and contingencies. NASA also places many other constraints on themselves. All of the major abort landing sites must have a minimal amount of daylight during launch. They also require that the external tank (the large fuel tank with all the foam on it that is the problem at the moment) be jettisoned in daylight so they can take pictures of it to assess how much (if any, we hope) foam separated. Then, there may be other orbiting space objects that they have to avoid hitting. All of these constraints (and others) resulted in a 10-minute launch window in late afternoon on a hot summer day.

Here's a table from spaceflightnow.com projecting out all of the launch windows through mid-July. Bill Harwood from CBS News (one of the very experienced "beat reporters" at the Cape) goes into a bit more detail than what I've just explained: STS-121 Launch Windows

I saw a rocket (not a shuttle) launch at night (2 am) once, and didn't have to fight any crowds. I simply stood out in the parking lot of my hotel in Melbourne, FL (south of Cocoa by, what, about 20 miles or so?). Even from that distance, it was absolutely awe-inspiring. And yes, it really does light up the sky.

I also once saw a shuttle launch, again without fighting crowds. This time I was on Kiawah Island, just south of Charleston, SC! It was just at sunset, so the flame was visible against the darkening sky and the smoke plume was well-lit by the setting sun. In mid-day it might not have been visible, and at night it might have looked like a bottle rocket. But as it was, it was spectacular.

OT ...and for you folks who live in the SW US, Launch Alert (previously called "Astronomy/Space Alert for Southern California") is a free, e-mail based newsletter covering pending missile launches from Vandenberg AFB and other southern California astronomy and space news. Many of the events covered are visible across much of the Southwest. Launch Alert is edited by Brian Webb and published about four times per month.

http://www.spacearchive.info/newsletter.htm

Thanks for the info everyone! Sorry that I couldn't thank everyone sooner...just got back from a trip and my laptop died.

I agree that sitting out all day in 95 degree heat doesn't sound too appealing, but then again It's the Space Shuttle Launch!! And great idea about bring a portable radio or laptop to know if the launch is scrubbed.

I'm going to spend some time tonight looking into hotels, if I'm lucky I'll find one in Georgia :D

Pics from my recent trip to the SPace Center
 

You do know the Georgia border is a solid three hours from KSC, right? Certainly there must be something closer.

I had a nice treat tonight. I walked out of my home, right next to KSC, just with the intention of going to the market and BOOOM! a rocket launches right then and there! It was a small rocket, but boy oh boy could you feel, hear, see it.

I'm sad I will be away until the 2nd on July. Hopefully it will be scrubbed until the 3rd, as I leave again on the 4th. This would be my first shuttle launch!!

Another treat I hope comes through, my company is erecting the media towers at the launch site. I'm cleared to be on the job site, but alas the rumors are it's being moved to later in the week (causing me to miss the chance to be up close and personal with the ultimate airline ride) because NASA didn't pay their bill! If I do go, I'll definitely post some pictures, provided I am allowed to take them.