Viewing a launch, well, not really!

On Friday, the SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy was scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center, but the weather was not good, so early on Friday, the launch delayed to Saturday. We had thought about going to visit the Space Center and view the launch on Friday, so our plans changed to Saturday. We looked at information online about visiting Kennedy Space Center - we have both visited before, many years ago. We didn't remember it being expensive, but now the senior rate for entering the Space Center is $70 for a one day pass (I think you can get a two-day pass for $90). 

I had contacted a Facebook friend and former IBM co-worker, Mike, who has posted wonderful photos he has taken of launches in the past, to find out if he has any favored spots for viewing the launches. He gave me really good guidance the his favorite spot. We decided that we'd try to just go to view the launch from his preferred location outside the Space Center. It was to be about an hour and half drive.

We checked the schedule in the morning on Saturday, and before we left Gracie at about 2pm -- the launch was scheduled at 5:55pm and it appeared to still be on the schedule. We made the drive and found the location that Mike had recommended and got parked.

With our binoculars, we could see that the rocket was on the launchpad in the distance...

... it was a little over 14 miles away - this is with the picture zoomed in - you can see the support structure and rocket between the red and green buoy markers.

Another view

We were also very near Port Canaveral, and saw a number of cruise ships preparing to leave.

A view across the water to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Kennedy Space Center.

Another view of the rocket (this picture with Carl's phone).

Carl noted that we weren't seeing any signs that they were loading fuel (there would have been white clouds produced from the liquid oxygen and liquid methane), so we did additional searches on our phones, and now the launch schedule showed that it was scheduled for Sunday... bummer!!! It turns out that if we had searched for "launch schedule delay" rather than "launch schedule", we may have seen the delay before we left Gracie, as it appeared in some media outlets by 1:55pm -- double bummer!

Oh well, we had a nice drive over to the "space coast" of Florida, and we got to see some of the Kennedy Space Center, albeit from a distance. We got to see Mike's viewing location and evaluate if we thought Gracie could come there (we think it would not work for a big class A motorhome). We got to see some cruise ships heading out to sea. It was a pretty day, although chilly. And we got to spend it together, which is always special!