Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Space Shuttle Launch

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ira Elbert New III wrote:
>      I wasn't fortunate enough to land any tickets to the last launch of 
> the Space Shuttle next week. However, I do have reservations in Ormond 
> Beach for the launch. I'd like to get as close as possible and I'm 
> hoping someone with a little more experience can lend a hand. I know 
> that I'll probably have to leave Ormond pretty early Friday morning in 
> order to get anywhere near the launch and then sit around in the warm 
> Florida sun and wait for the launch at 11:26 Friday morning. Any help 
> would be appreciated. I'll take along the scanner to listen for anything 
> I might be able to pick up and a couple of other radios too. Try not to 
> send me too far into the boondocks as I will have my Wife and 
> ten-year-old daughter with me. Thanks in advance.

Bert,

I was at Space View Park in Titusville for the STS-133 launch in 
February. It was an amazing experience. Space View Park is about as 
close as you can get to the launch site with a direct view if you don't 
have a ticket to be on NASA property. Garrett Wollman and I got there 
about 4 hours before launch and we were able to edge ourselves almost up 
to the water, with nothing but about six rows of people and a couple of 
miles of open water between us and the launch. With a long lens, you can 
see the back side of the launch pad right across the water from the edge 
of the park.

If you're daring (and willing to risk catching whatever's in the 
water!), you can actually go right into the shallow water between the 
two sides of Space View Park. There were a ton of people sitting in lawn 
chairs in the water or just standing in the water awaiting the launch.

The south side of Space View Park has bathrooms (very long lines!) and a 
live PA feed of NASA audio. We were on the north side, which was 
marginally less crowded. I am told there are also lots of private 
property owners right along the water in Titusville (just a couple of 
blocks east of US 1, south of Space View Park) who will let you set up 
in their yards with water views...for a price.

The worst part of the experience wasn't the traffic coming into 
Titusville (not bad), nor the parking (on the street about 4 short 
blocks away), nor the crowds in the park (intense but friendly). It was 
the VERY long wait in traffic to get out of town after the launch. It 
took us something like 3 hours to get from where the car was parked in 
downtown Titusville up to the SR 50/I-95 junction northwest of town, and 
then another hour-plus from there back into Orlando via a roundabout 
route. Your best bet - and what I'd do if I had it to do over again - 
would be to plan on sticking around Titusville for a few hours after the 
launch. Bring a picnic or patronize one of the local restaurants 
(they'll be hurting for business after the shuttle program ends!) and 
don't plan on leaving town until 5-6 hours after the launch and you 
should be able to move pretty quickly after that. (You *might* have 
slightly better luck with your drive going north, but I doubt it!)

Do not expect to have any usable cell service around launch time. 
Verizon, at least, was completely overloaded for an hour or so, which 
was a challenge to me since I was trying to get calls out to file 
live-on-scene reports for WXXI in Rochester and for Ron Gitschier's WNZF 
up the coast in Flagler County!

Oh, and as for radio? WMEL 1300 out of Cocoa does nonstop coverage of 
the launch for quite a while before and after, sometimes just relaying 
raw NASA audio. WDBO 580 and WMFE 90.7 from Orlando cut into regular 
programming closer to the launch for updates.

It's the experience of a lifetime...hope you have a blast!!

s
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