- spaceflightnow.com has excellent info on upcoming launches and then streams most of them live. Highly recommended.
- don’t plan a trip around a rocket launch. They get scrubbed all the time. Find something else you want to do in the area (even a few hours away, such as Miami) and then make a game time decision to go if the launch is likely to happen. That said, the Kennedy space center visitors complex is fantastic, especially with kids, and is worth a short trip with or without a launch.
- The article says to get there early. Personally I wouldn’t fret if watching in Florida. There’s lots of good places to watch from and given that launches happen almost weekly these days (and sometimes multiple times a day!), the crowds are not that crazy.
- it’s cool to see, but don’t overinflate expectations. I watched a Falcon 9 launch. It was fun. It was not as loud as expected. I understand that Falcon Heavies are louder (obviously the same goes for Starship). But at the end of the day you are pretty far away from these launches. It’s nothing like what you see on TV where the cameras are nearby.
- you need to tune in to a live broadcast to know what is going on during a launch, and if it is going to go ahead. Just keep in mind that there are delays in the broadcast, so by the time they are counting down to ten, the rocket might already have launched.
- personally I went to Cape Canaveral for one launch (I live 2.5 hours away by car) and I had fun. It was worth it but I wouldn’t go again, at least until starships launch from Florida. But I live in Miami and you can see the launches that happen at night, very clearly. The rocket is much brighter than any star and has a clear “rocket trail”. Anytime there’s a launch early enough at night, I try to take my kids to see it. It’s fun and definitely worth the five minute drive to a dark clearing. If you are in south Florida, check the launch schedules ahead of time and try to go outside and see one!
- don’t plan a trip around a rocket launch. They get scrubbed all the time. Find something else you want to do in the area (even a few hours away, such as Miami) and then make a game time decision to go if the launch is likely to happen. That said, the Kennedy space center visitors complex is fantastic, especially with kids, and is worth a short trip with or without a launch.
make sure you have a backup plan or at least flexibility. We tried a couple times to see a shuttle launch as a child. Literally as we were coming up on the cross roads between Titusville and Orlando, the first launch attempt scrubbed. so we ended up at Disney a day early.
Also, the launch happens fast - if you plan to record it with your phone, set it up on a tripod or something before and not muck with it at all, you’ll miss the first seconds of the launch fast and by then the rocket is already pretty far up.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy double-booster landing on land during the evening/night is worth the trip. You have to know the flight profile though, since with a full payload the boosters can’t boostback.
Worth noting if you are in NZ you can drive to a viewing site [0] though parking is limited so you may want to get dropped off, and as far as something else to do in the area the Mahia peninsula has great surfing [1]
- spaceflightnow.com has excellent info on upcoming launches and then streams most of them live. Highly recommended.
- don’t plan a trip around a rocket launch. They get scrubbed all the time. Find something else you want to do in the area (even a few hours away, such as Miami) and then make a game time decision to go if the launch is likely to happen. That said, the Kennedy space center visitors complex is fantastic, especially with kids, and is worth a short trip with or without a launch.
- The article says to get there early. Personally I wouldn’t fret if watching in Florida. There’s lots of good places to watch from and given that launches happen almost weekly these days (and sometimes multiple times a day!), the crowds are not that crazy.
- it’s cool to see, but don’t overinflate expectations. I watched a Falcon 9 launch. It was fun. It was not as loud as expected. I understand that Falcon Heavies are louder (obviously the same goes for Starship). But at the end of the day you are pretty far away from these launches. It’s nothing like what you see on TV where the cameras are nearby.
- you need to tune in to a live broadcast to know what is going on during a launch, and if it is going to go ahead. Just keep in mind that there are delays in the broadcast, so by the time they are counting down to ten, the rocket might already have launched.
- personally I went to Cape Canaveral for one launch (I live 2.5 hours away by car) and I had fun. It was worth it but I wouldn’t go again, at least until starships launch from Florida. But I live in Miami and you can see the launches that happen at night, very clearly. The rocket is much brighter than any star and has a clear “rocket trail”. Anytime there’s a launch early enough at night, I try to take my kids to see it. It’s fun and definitely worth the five minute drive to a dark clearing. If you are in south Florida, check the launch schedules ahead of time and try to go outside and see one!