8 months, huh. That’s what “nearly running out of runway, getting a job at the last moment, and then being so heads down at it that you don’t even think about launches except takin pictures of ’em from the parking lot at work,” going to a convention for the first time, and so on will do i suppose. I hope nothing significant happened that I should have been on top of.
Would have been awful for the site to be in stasis for as long as the Starliner astronauts are gonna be up in space, good thing that totally didn’t happen.
We’ll start with a rundown of upcoming big-ticket launches (good lord, New Glenn is about to fly, AND Europa Clipper just before! Not to mention potentially two Vulcan flights) and best practices, then I’ll get into what’s been going on.
Launches and Locations
Major Launches
- Crew-9 (Falcon 9) – NET 25/Sept:
- The first crewed launch from LC-40, with a booster landing, and with a midday window. You’ve got pick of the litter with this one.
- The KSC Visitors’ Complex already has tickets on sale, and these are “included with admission” viewing rather than the “feel the heat” package deal. The $70 upcharge will get you to the Saturn V Center, where you’ll have a better view of launch than most, but it’s not as great as it is for pad 39, and on top of that the landing zone is behind the VAB almost from that perspective. If you’re already going, definitely worth it.
- Playalinda should be open, unless SpaceX pulls the “we’re anti-fun” card and has the range close it despite this being a launch from 40, well outside the hazard zones for even a worst case. You don’t get a good view of launch OR landing though, not with 39a in the way of the pad and the LZ about as far away as you can get from it.
- Jetty Park should be open as normal, and that’ll be your best spot to watch the landings, but any public beach access in Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach will be a treat as well.
- As always, all the riverside parks along 1 in Titusville are good overall.
- Hera (Falcon 9) – NET 7/Oct:
- Another launch from 40, though I’m yet uncertain if it’s RTLS or ASDS. Given it’s the ESA’s mission to send a probe to the same asteroid we hit with DART to see what changed, and thus a deep space mission, I’d assume ASDS.
- If it’s ASDS, everywhere’s about equivalent for 40.
- Europa Clipper (Falcon Heavy) – NET 10/Oct:
- This will be the first full expendable Falcon Heavy, so don’t fuss about getting landing views from Port Canaveral.
- Currently penciled in for midday, if you can get to Playalinda, that’ll be your ticket. Unless SpaceX demands it closed, which has happened before.
- The KSC Visitors’ Complex is now (9/19) has already sold out of Feel the Heat packages in the hours between getting the email and getting home to hit publish on this. They will be doing general admission for main center viewing, but unless the amenities on site really speak to you and you were going there anyway, it’s not that much closer.
- It’s yet to be seen if Star*Fleet tours will offer viewing charters, but I imagine they will. Personally, that’s where I’m hoping to be.
- Everything else, just get on the river’s edge somewhere. There’s no shortage of parks along 1 for it, and they’ll all treat you right.
- Vulcan Cert-2 & USSF-106 (Vulcan) – NET ?/Sept (Cert-2) / ?/Oct (USSF-106)
- These are still very tentative dates, and as such I can only be general.
- If these fall within daylight hours, Playalinda is your best view of 41. Go out in the sand and surf and watch a rocket lift off over the waves. It’s sublime.
- Otherwise, it’s up to whether the other paid options (KSCVC, Star*Fleet) make opportunities available to get the absolute close viewing.
- But as usual, closest isn’t everything, and you will absolutely have a great time anywhere along the waterfront.
- New Glenn Flight 1 (New Glenn) – NET November
- Cocoa Beach. That is all. Just put your feet in the sand somewhere on Cocoa Beach or Cape Canaveral. you can see LC-36 clean over the water, it’s the enormous thing next to the lighthouse.
- Cocoa Beach. That is all. Just put your feet in the sand somewhere on Cocoa Beach or Cape Canaveral. you can see LC-36 clean over the water, it’s the enormous thing next to the lighthouse.
Personal and Site News
I got a job! Back in April my luck finally turned, and I’ve been working 4 days a week as a dishwasher/busser at a restaurant on the river, so I don’t even miss a launch at work. It’s great, and I’m stunned it’s lasted five months with no signs of stopping, unlike the previous convenience store job. I’ve been very heads down with that, so site updates were nonexistent as I managed an actual workload. That honestly hasn’t stopped, but what’s prompted this, aside from the time passed:
Site work is underway.
I’ve brought on the friend who once ran a very similarly structured site and knows a lot more about wordpress backend than I do to clean things up there, which has been progressing as it does. The site’s mechanically sound, which is good, all the plugins have been updated and stuff’s getting fixed that needed it.
We’ve also, as of this past weekend, moved hosting providers! The one we were on was a victim of enshittification, as the bloggers say, it was taken over by a company and the new management were intent to run it into the ground making their service worse and more expensive. We’re now on a different hosting provider, and in making the move we trimmed a lot of the fat from the database, a lot of Wayward’s old project sites that’re long since gone. As of yet, we havent’ migrated their personal site, but we did this move right after the old host renewed, so we’ve got a month of runway.
After that, as time allows, it’ll be layout work, fixing how everything’s bodged together, and making the site into the tool it always wanted to be. Into a site I’m happy with. Once layout’s good, I’m looking towards a few other folk in my orbit for a nice graphical improvement, getting assets that weren’t just traced in Flash from other sources for a new interactive map, et cetera. Maybe some other things, like potentially integrating Flight Club for visualizations of launch trajectories from common spots in like an AR way, overlaid on photos or somethin’. If Declan’s up for that.
But for now, we just gotta keep moving forward, letting my finances stabilize now that I have income. I had to put paying off the credit card on hold this month ’cause I had a back patio to build, my rusted-out back step was a fire hazard and I had company in town that’d offered to help haul it off and build a wooden back stoop so I had safe egress. It evolved into an 8×8 patio and it’s very nice.
As always, safe travels
Lupi