Initially, we did not have plans to see Cape Canaveral or the Kennedy Space Center.  That idea hit our minds a couple of days before we got here, mainly because it was on our way to Charleston and seemed like something we would regret if we didn’t go.  Two days before the date we wanted to go, we found out there was going to be a launch, on the day we had chosen.

We got to the park about a half hour before they opened at 9:30 and stood in long lines to get tickets, then to enter the gates.  One man in line had been there several times and remarked that he had never seen lines so long.

Because we would have to take a bus tour to get to the launch viewing site and because we were told that buses would quit running when they had loaded as many people as the observation area would hold, we decided to head that way right away.  Staff had no way to predict when that would happen and we were taking no chances. We got on the bus at 11, for a 4:30 PM launch.  We were one of the first to arrive at the observation site on Cape Canaveral and we were glad we had made that decision.

We found some lunch and went to the patio to eat.  All tables were occupied so we asked another couple if we could join them.  They were from outside London and had traveled the world for his job.  Now they come to Florida every winter for 5 weeks.  We never did get their names but enjoyed chatting with them for about an hour.

We had a lot of time to kill, waiting for launch.  We spent some of that looking at the exhibits inside.  This location displayed items that had never actually been to space but were part of the Apollo program.

We had a great time people-watching and then lift off was right on time at 4:30.  This was a commercial launch, taking supplies to the International Space Station.

Here’s the video of the launch!  The rocket is the small white dot that travels up just to the left of the trees.  Shortly after the sound came at us we could feel the heat from the launch even on a 90+ day!