We had a family Disney cruise the week of Thanksgiving but flew in early… 1) the air tickets were less expensive and 2) we could have some fun before the cruise.
After our full day at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival, we enjoyed a leisurely day at our resort. There was a SpaceX Starlink Mission launch scheduled for the evening with a 4 hour launch window. Around 5:30 we headed toward Titusville and the Space Coast.
We parked along the Indian River Lagoon System and were approximately 4 miles from the launch site. The park had a board telling the history of Titusville. The city was established in 1867 and by 1900 had a population of 900. After World War II, nearby Cape Canaveral was developed as a space center causing the population to grow quickly with NACA workers. NACA stood for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as the US did not officially have a space program yet.
We are abit of Space Nerds and were very excited for the launch. We have watched a day time launch and had the space shuttle fly over a cruise ship, but have never witnessed a night time launch. The launch site is where the blinking red light is.
Jade had a live feed on his phone so he kept us informed and up to date on the launch . He even counted down the time for 2 German tourists standing next to us.
The rocket launched at 6:47pm…Jade caught the engines firing on his feed. Even though we were 4 miles away, it was very cool.
Liftoff…the very first rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral in 1950, so this was the 75th year of space travel from Florida.
The sound of the launch took about 45 seconds to hit us…but was amazing
The booster kicked in…
The rocket made a hard right and went into space. The booster then falls back to earth in a series calculated falls and lands on a Spaceport Drone Ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
We celebrated a successful launch viewing at the Culvers in Titusville.
We hustled back to Orlando and met two of our favorite Iowans. Over the next two days, we were going to have a mini NPA (No Parents Allowed)
