Space Shuttle Landing

[WEDWDW]

I have been to KSC one time.Would it be worth using precious WDW vacation time to go to KSC for the Space Shuttle landing?Is it real exciting to be there?Is the sonic boom impressive?Can you hear it from WDW?Can you usually see the Space Shuttle as it comes in for a landing if you are at KSC?Thanks.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

We were at WDW for the launch, and it was so exciting I cannot put it in words. We were on Seven Seas Lagoon to watch MK fireworks and turned around and watched the shuttle take off, amazing. If it was that exciting from that far away, I can only imagine what it is like to be there for the landing..

 

[OrlandoMike]

Yes you can hear the sonic booms at Disney. If you are near any windows they will actually rattle! As far as taking time to go over to the cape to see the landing, as with everything with the shuttle its always hit or miss. It may be diverted to another landing location at the last minute because of everything from weather to technical difficulties.

 

[lovethattink]

Exactly as orlandomike said, often they divert it to another landing site. As he mentioned about the sonic boom, it's a big one. When we first moved here and heard it, we thought there was a burgler in our house. All our windows and dishes rattled in the cupboard.

The last landing, I was at the hospital with my son, and the walls and windows were pretty thick because we only heard a small boom through them. It was funny, we heard the boom and a couple minutes later the announcer said the shuttle just broke the light/sound barrier.

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

You really can't see much from the coast when it is landing. They don't let visitors near the landing strip anymore, so from the distance you would be from it it really just looks like an airplane. My friends parents live out there about 10 miles from the Cape and we went out to the beach to see it come in and completely missed it cause we were expecting it to be a little more grand.

As for the sonic booms, it depends on what direction they are coming in. You can not always hear it in Orlando. If they are coming in across the Gulf of Mexico and across the state you will hear it, but if they are coming in the other way you will not, if they are coming up the east coast (from Miami) it is hit or miss, sometimes you hear it sometimes you won't. As others have mentioned though, it is loud, if you are in a building you will hear the boom and the windows/walls will shake, but if you are outside you might not hear anything at all.

Anyway, I would not go out to the Cape for a landing, it is nowhere near as grand as a launch and you do run the risk of missing it all together. I would plan to be inside about 5-10 minutes to landing (remember it is going about 800 miles per hour when it comes in so the sonic booms will happen fairly close to the landing time).

 

[Maverick Mike]

If the landing is at night, you won't see anything. The shuttle has absolutely no landing lights like an airplane, as it is brought it totally by computers, with no need for lights..

The sonic boom is very cool, though!

(Former Space Camp instructor!)
MM

 

[ducklite]

The last two shuttle landings came in from a different direction and there was no sonic boom anywhere in the greater Orlando area. A lot of us were really disappointed with that.

Anne