Disappointed, June space shuttle changed....

2catz1

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 13, 2001
One of the primary reasons we picked our trip dates June 7-14 was because we wanted to see the space shuttle launch on June 8th...Well, I just checked the Kennedy Space center website and now the date is June 14, just about 5hrs after we're gone...I expected maybe a lift off time change or even a last minute change due to weather or something but not this far in advance. Bummer
 
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is a very frequent occurrence. Shuttle launches get delayed or rescheduled for a wide variety of reasons - sometimes months before, sometimes hours or minutes. It's best not to plan a trip around a launch.

We were originally looking forward to seeing a launch on Feb 15th, in the middle of our trip, but this launch got put back until March. Later, however, the January launch got put back until Feb 6th, the day we arrived, and it would have gone up at abouth the same time our plane landed in Orlando. But then, a few days before our trip, it was rescheduled again for Feb 7th, so we got to see it and it was fantastic and we were very fortunate.

Maybe you'll be lucky, too.
 
We did see the space shuttle launch last September right on schedule. I will be totally honest with you. As much as I had wanted to see it, I was a little disappointed. You may think I am crazy, but I had really wanted to see this and was so excited. It is so much more intense on television. I thought it would be much louder and much more intense in person. We were as close as they let humans get and it still was kinda far off and we could see the fire at the bottom and then it started up and made a huge stack of exhaust and then it flew away and it was over. Believe it or not, it was not all that I thought it would be. Don't be too worried about missing it. It was something I am glad I saw, but not enough to fret over missing.
 
Our experience was almost the opposite of yours, Antonia. We watched from Titusville, about 10 miles away from the launch pads, and I was a bit concerned that it might not be that great from so far away and that our kids would be bored and unimpressed.

However, when it went up it was an awesome sight - truly amazing. What made it even more spectacular was the smoke trail turning yellow, orange and red in the setting sun. We were surprised how well you could see the booster rockets falling away and that you could still see the shuttle about 5 minutes after launch when it was hundreds of miles away. The only slghtly disappointing thing was not being able to hear much at that distance.

Even now, our kids (all girls) talk about this almost as much as all the Disney stuff we did, so it was well worth taking them to see it.
 


I think it may depend a lot on the time of day. The launch we saw was early morning - about 8 am I think - there was a lot of fog and for a while we could barely see the launch pads for all the fog. The fog finally broke but still the light at that time may have taken away from the launch. I think late afternoon or night may be a lot better. If I am ever down there for a night launch I think I would try to see it again.
 
A couple years ago a cancelled launch was rescheduled for the week we were at WDW. However, this launch was again cancelled and never did go up till about two weeks after we returned home. This happens often enough that I would never schedule a vacation to coincide with a shuttle launch. Someday maybe we'll get lucky and see one, but I'm not counting on it.
 

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