Launch Rats

After something like 3 years of absence, the Falcon Heavy rocket is returning to service with the USSF-44 mission for the Space Force. To make matters even better, it’s a double-RTLS! If you’re going to be in the area for the launch, here’s a rundown of the important details, and some advice to help you find the viewing spot of your choice.

Launch Details

The launch of USSF-44 is currently scheduled for November 1st, 2022 with a window spanning roughly 30 minutes, from 9:40 AM to 10:11 AM local Florida time. That means, all going well, it will launch within that span of time. 30 minutes is not long enough for them to reset the countdown if they have a hold, so if you hear a hold called, that means they will not launch. The date and time for a second attempt have not been made public, but expect it to be at least 48 hours later.

RTLS, or Return to Launch Site, is a way SpaceX will recover a booster, or in this case, boosters. After the two outer boosters shut down their engines and separate from the rocket, they will flip around and light their engines to slow themselves down, so they can guide themselves back to landing pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as opposed to the landing barges they tow out to sea to land on for ocean recoveries.

Viewing Options

The Falcon Heavy will be lifting off from Launch Complex 39A on the north side of the Kennedy Space Center, and its boosters will be landing at Landing Zones 1 and 2 towards the south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As the launch and landing site are fairly far apart, there is no one killer spot to watch both the launch and the landing, so where you go is entirely dependent on your priorities.

Paid Options

The Kennedy Space Center Visitors’ Complex is offering paid viewing in the form of their Feel The Heat package ($250) as well as offering viewing from their main campus included with your paid admission ($75).
– Feel the Heat will net you a view from the Banana River Viewing Stands at the Saturn V Center, 3 miles away from the LC-39A. It is without a doubt the best place from which to view the launch itself. The view of booster landing isn’t as exceptional, from your perspective it will be near to, and possibly behind, the Vehicle Assembly Building. Included in the ticket price are 2 days of admission, a meal, and a handful of souvenirs to commemorate the launch. This package is valid for 2 launch attempts, so if it does not fly on the 1st you will be able to return for a second opportunity. Check-in for this viewing is at 5:30AM, you should nominally be at the visitors complex by then.
– Main Center Viewing is included with park admission for the day. They will have jumbotrons showing the launch, but you don’t have a direct view of launch or landing due to the brush and trees surrounding the visitors complex. You’re still technically closer than all but Feel the Heat, but if not being able to see the rocket on the pad and/or losing it behind the trees on landing are dealbreakers, this may not be for you. There is no scrub policy per se here, if it doesn’t go you have to buy another ticket, you didn’t buy a launch package just park admission.

Jetty Park ($16/car) is among the best places to witness a booster landing, and by far one of the closest at around 6 miles distance from the landing zones. Being so low to the water level, the berm on the other side of the Port Canaveral channel blocks your direct view of the launch pad and landing zones, but the view you get from that south end, watching the rocket go out to sea, then seeing the boosters come back feeling like they’re right overhead, is definitely worth that tradeoff, especially at that price. The gates open at 7am and the park will close when it reaches capacity.

Star*Fleet Tours plans on offering viewing excursions to view the launch and landing from out to sea, and I can’t recommend this enough. This is the unparalleled best view you’ll have of landing, and your position out at sea will also afford you a fair view of launch. $89 will get you aboard a boat, 10 dollars more will upgrade you to the upper deck of the boat (these are 2-story, ~80-foot, ~100-person fishing boats), and seating is limited with only one boat available. Tickets sales are live, and upper deck tickets have already sold out! There may still be room, and they may take walk-ins if you have the money.

Free Options

Second only to Jetty Park for landing are the beach accesses in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, most of which have free parking save for the ones near the Cocoa Beach Pier. These maintain the same drawbacks at Jetty Park and are slightly further away, but you shouldn’t necessarily discount them. They’re still some of the closest places you can get to landing.

The viewing sites that balance launch and landing the best are the county parks along US1 between the 528 and downtown Titusville, all of which are free and public. These are all a fair distance from both launch and landing, but they all have a clear view across the water. The further north you go, the closer you are to launch. The further south, closer to landing. They are all roughly comparable, all scoring between 10-15 miles away from both launch and landing, and it comes down to preference. They will all treat you well.

If you’re in downtown Titusville, the Max Brewer Bridge is also a fun place to watch a launch, assuming you’re willing and able to walk up the bridge. It does have a fairly moderate slope, especially the eastern side. That side’s a pain to climb even with my mountain bike geared down. It’s also a fairly limited option, unless Brevard County closes the bridge to traffic, which I’m not certain they will. It doesn’t happen often, so don’t count on it and have a backup plan if it’s not available.

As a note, Playalinda Beach will almost certainly be closed, I’ve seen enough reports of people calling and being told such to say that, and they additionally closed the seashore for the static fire test of the rocket.

Furthermore, the “rocket launch viewing” on google maps by the south gate of CCSFS will likely be reserved for off-base personnel, and thus unavailable.

Launch and Landing Summary

Viewing Site	Launch View	Landing View
(KSC) Feel The Heat	Great	Good
(KSC) Main Center	Okay	Okay
Jetty Park	Okay	Great
Star*Fleet Tours	Good	Great
Public Beaches	Okay	Good-Great
US1 County Parks	Good	Good

Best Practices

Arrive at your preferred viewing site at least 2-3 hours early. If you’re planning on Jetty Park, try to arrive before 7:00 because there’s going to be a whole lot of people vying to get in right when the gates open. If you’re planning on KSC, arrive before your Feel the Heat ticket says to, or as early as you’re willing.

Bring sunscreen, bug spray, water, a powerbank, maybe some snacks. The Florida sun doesn’t play nice, even in “winter.”

Wear a mask, social distance, and be considerate of your fellow people to either side. It’s outdoors, you shouldn’t have any trouble giving each other room.

Take care of yourselves, and safe travels,
Lupi

This post is going to serve as addendum to the original post, so make sure you’ve read that.

As I’m writing this, it’s now Wednesday. Artemis I’s first launch attempt on the 29th has come and gone with a handful of teething issues culminating in a scrub being called, and last night NASA announced the date and time for the second attempt: Saturday, September 3rd, with a window spanning from 2:17 PM to 4:17 PM local time.

As NASA spent Monday gathering data on the vehicle, so too did we. Sunday afternoon I went on a bike ride from my home all the way down to where FL-50 meets US1, exploring the extent to which people had already descended upon Titusville for the launch, and documenting it in a twitter thread. In the wake of the scrub, I once again took to twitter to poll our followers on what the experience was like, when their spot filled up, and how bad exit traffic was.

Together, this data started to point out some trends, and confirmed some patterns I’d observed at launches that were far less heavily attended. I’ll get into that here shortly, but first, just a rapid-fire update on some viewing options.

Staying Home is Still a Solid Option

My home internet went out on Friday afternoon and wasn’t restored until Tuesday, but when I got it back I started watching some of the replay coverage from Everyday Astronaut and NASASpaceflight, and they all knocked it out of the park. I’m sure NASA’s in-house coverage was great too, but I haven’t looked at it in any depth.

The livestreams have access to SO MANY camera views, cameras placed all across the pads, looking at the engines, mounted on the lightning towers, there are so many things you can’t see through a pair of binoculars from 10 miles away.

Having seen how well some of the coverage was handled, I’m all the more confident in recommending, especially in the face of this continued pandemic, that you stay in. This of course doesn’t really mean much to folk who are already here in their hotels, their rentals, campers, et cetera, but if you weren’t already here and were thinking of coming down for the second attempt, just know it’s going to be even crazier, and you might just enjoy the home coverage more than the hassle.

Lightning Round of Launch Viewing Updates

The Kennedy Space Center Visitors’ Complex has confirmed that any viewing tickets purchased for the attempt on the 29th are still valid for Saturday, as was outlined in their scrub policy at the time of purchase. If you’re planning on going back to KSC, your ticket will still be valid. They have also made additional Main Center Viewing tickets available in a limited capacity.

Star*Fleet Tours has opened up tickets again, which are selling as fast as you might expect. Already they’ve started to fill the second of three potential large boats.

Brevard County’s myriad parks will be available as always. The parks department presently does not plan to leave the parks open overnight on Friday for Saturday’s attempt, as Saturday’s attempt is well into the afternoon.

The Canaveral Port Authority has released their revised plan for Port Canaveral and Jetty Park. Jetty Park will open at 7:00 AM as normal, and close when it reaches capacity. Port Canaveral remains unchanged, there will be no launch parking available, with all parking reserved for cruises, Cove patrons (Star*Fleet tours included), and private events.

Please see our plan for access to the Port during the rescheduled launch of NASA’s Artemis-1 rocket. The launch is currently scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd with a two-hour launch window opening at 2:17 p.m. and lasting through 4:17 p.m. pic.twitter.com/rWzw0jknYx

— Port Canaveral (@PortCanaveral) September 1, 2022

A lot of the same advice applies from the previous article. Playalinda will be closed, as will the Observation Deck downtown atop Beachwave. Port Canaveral will be restricting parking, as will the Titusville Mall, as both are being used as staging grounds to bus VIPs from NASA and contractors onto base.

Lessons Learned

Artemis I was a surprise for me in many ways. I hadn’t been in town for a major launch since moving here, DM-2 was a month before I moved in, and before that I was only a tourist for Falcon Heavy, when Wayward had just started this site. Even knowing roughly how many people were expected to be in town, and having fielded more viewing inquiries in the past month than the rest of 2022, I was far too generous in some of my estimates.

I knew Kirk Point was going to fill up early, I wasn’t expecting “more than 12 hours before launch” early. I wasn’t expecting some of the odd things I saw that evening at all. But they all make some sorta sense, so let’s go through it.

As far as Titusville goes, most of the early arrivals were concentrated around the intersection of FL-50 and US1. This makes a decent bit of sense, 50 is one of the main roads between Orlando and Titusville, Colonial Drive/Cheney Hwy/etc, and it spits you out right at the river. It also crosses I-95, allowing for easy access from the north and south alike. From there, it looks like traffic and camping out was biased northwards, with parks like Kennedy Point just south of 50 taking until after midnight to fill up.

The other hot spot was Space View Park, whose parking was full by 10pm, as was all the street parking near to it on Broad, Orange, Washington, and Hopkins. That makes sense, Space View is fairly well known as a spot to go.

The most substantial observation from Sunday and from Twitter is how quickly things fell off with distance and convenience.
The south end of Rotary Riverfront park with the unobstructed view filled up well within daylight on Sunday, but it took until well into the night for the north end by McDonalds to fill up. A condo tower blocked easy viewing, and folk passed over it or paid 40 dollars to park somewhere closer rather than park for free and walk a few hundred feet south.
Space View and the surrounding street parking were full by 11, but Sand Point and Marina Park were empty until well into the early hours of the morning.
The takeaway here I guess, don’t be afraid to park somewhere slightly worse and walk, the convenient parking fills fast, and in some cases the paid parking filled before the free spots if the free spots meant someone needed to walk.

Another matter of note was the extent to which businesses were offering paid overnight parking. I don’t know if we’ll see that again today, because those businesses will be open for normal hours on those days given it’s an afternoon launch.
However, I also saw a lot of folk who own vacant land along the river or near to parks selling parking, like the riverfront land between 50 and Kirk Point, and the big empty lot running along Broad Street downtown. That’ll probably be out in force again, but only time will tell.

The Calm Before the Storm

Overall, Artemis I, Attempt I, seemed to be more mellow than a lot of local folks (and businesses) were expecting. It had its crazy spots, like where 50 met US1, but asking around on Twitter and at businesses like the Cocoa Beach Pier and some places in Downtown Titusville, everyone said it wasn’t as bad as they thought it’d be.
They attributed that to a couple things: I was 8:30 AM on a Monday morning, and for a lot of the country school was already back in session. That made it less convenient for a lot of people to drop everything and come down.

That won’t be the case this weekend. Not only will Attempt II be on a Saturday afternoon, it’s a Saturday afternoon on Labor Day Weekend. And the final attempt of the launch period will be on Monday, still part of that holiday weekend.
That’s going to enable a great many people to make the trip who wouldn’t otherwise, whether they daytrip down or get a hotel somewhere nearby like Daytona. I think they already had the race last weekend, so that leaves a whole lot of hotel space free up there.
On top of that, Cocoa Beach has a surf competition on labor day weekend every year. I don’t know how many people that brings into town, but between that and late-season beach trips it’ll be crazy.

What Should You Do?

Get here early. Twice as early as you were planning on, if not more. In every email inquiry I’ve answered so far, I’ve said to arrive no later than sunrise. None of the parks will likely be open before sunrise, at least those which can be gated off. If they aren’t gated off, their bathrooms and such certainly won’t be open.

Take heed of the traffic flow I mentioned. Sail right on past 50, don’t be afraid to head north towards Titusville or south towards the 528. There are parks to either side that took well into the night to fill, because most people tried to jam in at 50 and US1.

If you’re able to walk a distance, find a place where you can park and walk. The parking spots taken first were the ones that were most convenient to a viewing spot, and places where you couldn’t see the rocket like Rotary Riverfront North took ages to fill where just a few blocks down people were charging 40 bucks a car.

Expect pandemonium whether it launches or scrubs. Traffic after Monday’s attempt was mild, it won’t be on Saturday. Stay where you are for a while, crank the AC and relax. Don’t try to leave in a hurry, you’ll just frustrate yourself in traffic.

One Final Note

I wanted to extend my thanks to everyone that sent tips, pledged to the Patreon, or bought photos after my request in the first Artemis I article. Y’all made it so I didn’t have to struggle for rent this month, and I even had enough left over to handle a few emergencies, like when I was out on Sunday afternoon for my survey ride and needed something to eat. I would’ve tried to make it home on an empty stomach but I didn’t have to, thanks to y’all.

Thanks for all the support, kind words, and for helping me stick around help you with your launch viewing journeys.

Safe travels,
Lupi.

EDIT HISTORY:
1/sept: conclusion paragraph, notes on it being labor day weekend now.
1/sept (again): general updates on the parks, port canaveral, and star*fleet

I think this is my first actual posting to the site, because the only other thing on here that’s mine, was sent as a Google Doc (to bennu and back, happy 5th anniversary OSIRIS-REx).

I’m trying to pick up all the pieces that Wayward left behind. I’ve been cleaning and rearranging the house, went through and donated a lot of their stuff, and I’ve tried here and there to poke at this site, without knowing much at all about how websites work.

A few weeks ago I updated the sidebar, which I have no clue how I did. But I’m writing this post to say first and foremost that I finally figured out how to update the contact form. Up until this point, all submissions on the Contact Us page were being sent directly to Wayward’s inbox, which meant I had to boot up their old computer to check for them.

I’m happy to report those now point towards the Team email which means they should be accessible to me, and any future folk who join me here. In the meantime, I’m sorry that I missed a handful of inquiries, though it seemed like a lot of the form submissions were just spam.

So, let’s talk Inspiration4.

I won’t mince words, Florida is a COVID cesspit right now, DO NOT TRAVEL HERE FROM OUT OF STATE. No launch is worth it, not even this one. Even if you’re traveling within the state, be careful. I don’t recall how much of a hotspot Brevard County is, but I’m sure it’s no different from the rest of Florida.

This launch has a Netflix deal. It should be no trouble watching it from home, with far better coverage than most launches get these days. It has John Kraus covering it for photography, it has the local space media being all but frozen out of coverage in favor of major media outlet exclusives like said Netflix deal.

For better or worse, you’ll probably have a better time watching from home. They’re saying this has a 24 hour window? The longest window I can remember was the Falcon Heavy Demo Flight in 2018, and that was only from something like 10am to 4pm. It used that entire window, launching at 3:45 PM that day. And let me tell you, it was a great day, but not a great time. By the end of it, my traveling companions were lobsters from not using sunscreen, and I still got burnt even though I was.

Your options are the $250 Feel the Heat package from the Kennedy Space Center, but I don’t know how that works with a 24 hour window, are they gonna keep people there for the whole attempt, or, what?

Given half of the launch window is during the night, Playalinda Beach is already likely to be off the table. But even so, we don’t know whether they’ll open it at all during the day, they have recently been closing it for launches from 39A.

So for the most part, the options are the same as always, in that they’re “pick a park along US1 and see if it’s open/full.”

If you do visit, please wear your mask and be courteous to those around you with social distancing. I don’t imagine we’ll be getting Falcon Heavy crowds, considering the Feel the Heat package doesn’t even appear to be sold out with less than a week to launch.

Take care,
Lupi.

Hey, y’all.

Starting… uh, a couple weeks ago, Launch Rats is in the process of transitioning to new-ish ownership, becoming the sole dominion of Lupi alone.

The reason why: is here, and also here.

During this transition period, responses to personalized launch viewing info requests may be delayed or missed entirely. Sorry about that; we’ll do the best we can. Also, updates will be suspended until… whenever. I reckon there’s enough other info on this site to remain useful to y’all in the meantime.

Clear skies & safe landings,

Wayward