Community Guy – Jake McKee

Not to crush your dream, but you aren't missing much. I've seen dozens of launches - close, far, and in-between, and while they are always interesting, I honestly get a bigger thrill of parking next to the fence by the airport and having the 737's come in for a landing right over my head.

If you must go, you should make it count. Try and see a night launch - far and away better (and less likely to be scrubbed). The main viewing area is about 2 miles from the pad and requires a pass to get in -- usually pretty easy to obtain from folks in and around KSC. They have a limit of about 5,000 people per launch. A lot of other cars will pull over en route on near the two closest causeways and up by the Port, but will be farther (though not by much...).

A very few people get to be real close (less than a 1/4 mile), incl. some of the bigger press units. NASA saves those spots for visiting dignitaries, congressmen, etc... Not a real good chance you could ever get in there. My dad, who works for NASA, has only been at that site once and I think it was just for some odd reason if I recall.

BTW, let's hope we never witness a shuttle smoke plume like that picture you posted. Also, test launch date for the new Mars rocket is less than a year. The full thing should be really exciting in the next 4-5 years. It's going to be like the Saturn V... huge and dwarfing the Shuttle.

Yeah, I'd love to see the Saturn launches too. But the shuttle holds a special place in my heart... it's the Space Shuttle, after all!

I can't recommend it enough. I went for a launch on my birthday in February and it was amazing.

Here are some pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/acaben/sets/7215760423...

So how did you deal with the (potential) launch scrubs? Coming from out of town makes it hard for me to figure that part out.

The launch I saw was set for a Thursday, so I flew down Wednesday after work. I stayed in a hotel near KSC and got up REALLY early Thursday morning to see the launch. If it had been scrubbed (and there was an 80% chance of no launch on Thursday. The weather cooperated at the very last second and she launched on schedule, amazingly.), I planned to be there for tries on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, before a late flight back to DC Sunday night. I knew it was risky, but that I'd at least have a few days to enjoy an early Florida spring for a few days even if I didn't get to see it fly.

It was hard to make plans for the rest of the trip, because we weren't sure how long we were going to have to spend on Cape Canaveral. So we just played everything by ear, and it worked out really well.