Anybody visited Cape Canaveral?

I'm toying with the idea of going to Florida next year just to see one of the last shuttle lift-offs.

Has anyone been there-done that and is it worth the visit? Any tips on where to go to get a good viewpoint etc?

thanks
Stephen

Stephen,

We went on holidays to Florida in February 2008 to co-incide the trip with a shuttle launch. However, the previous shuttle launch in December was scrubbed and so the schedule was adjusted. Luckily, another shuttle launch (STS-122) was scheduled within the timeline of our trip over there.

The closest you can get to it is normally is 12 miles away, unless you get a special ticket from Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) to enter their site - then you are 6 miles away but the tickets are sold out months in advance and are non-refundable if there is no launch. We were here: 28°24'19.40"N, 80°38'58.33"W (see google map below)parked at the side of a freeway along with several hundred others 13.8 miles from the pad. This is almost due south of the pads and so you get a good view right across the water to the pad. With binos you can just make out the shuttle on the pad. From this location, you can see the shuttle take off and arc out over the Atlantic. The closest the public can normally get is about 12 miles but that is due west of the pad and so you don't see the curve as much as it heads away from you out over the Atlantic. The main road to KSC closes on launch days.

KSC needs at least 2 full days to tour properly. Loads to see and do! Well worth a visit to Florida just to see KSC alone. The launch we saw was very nearly scrubbed due to bad weather at the emergency landing runway in Spain so take note of that. It was only about 1 hour before take-off that the runway in Spain was re-opened!

Michael,
Thanks for the detailed reply and photos. Even at 12 miles away it looks like it would be an impressive sight!I presume you would still hear some noise from the lift-off as well?
The only thing that worries me is that the lift-off date always seems to get delayed or cancelled altogether, so it seems like it would be a very hit-and-miss sort of trip.
But it still sounds like the space centre itself is worth the visit even if the shuttle was cancelled.

Thanks again for the info.
Stephen

Space centre is well worth the visit alright.
As for the shuttle launch, it's not that loud from 12 miles away unfortunately.
Yes, you can hear it, but leave the ear plugs at home or else you won't hear a thing!

Michael.