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| Artemis 1 on the Launch Pad |
My wife’s former colleague, who works for NASA, invited my wife (and me as a guest) to watch the Artemis 1 launch from the Kennedy Space Center. My wife and I made the long drive from Virginia to Florida. We followed the instructions to check in and claim our credentials. We were surprised to find that the check in location was a shopping mall.
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| Titusville Mall |
This mall, like so many, has lots of vacancies. Many of its stores were closed and the parking lot was almost empty. Its best days may be behind it. But that made it a good place for visitors to check in. There was plenty of parking, the mall was almost empty of shoppers, and we didn’t have to go through any security to get our credentials.
At check in, we were told to meet the busses at the Space Coast Regional Airport at 1AM the next day. That’s right: 1AM for a launch window that started at 8:33 AM. So that’s what we did. We arrived shortly before 1 AM and lined up with hundreds of other cars. We were directed to park on the grass near the runway. After we parked, we boarded a bus and rode to the Banana Creek viewing area. It’s adjacent to the Saturn V Center, which is a spot on the Kennedy Space Center public tour. I’ve actually been to this location twice before, so I knew what to expect. We arrived at about 2:30 AM. There we picked a spot in the bleachers and waited. I took a few photos of the rocket on the pad.
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| Artemis 1 |
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| Clouds Lit Up Above Artemis 1 |
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| The Crowd Waits for the Launch in the Morning Gloom |
There is a public address system at this site along with a large TV screen. We received several announcements while we waited in which we were kept informed as to the progress of the tanking process.
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| Artemis 1 at Sunrise |
As the sun came up, the clouds over the ocean formed a nice backdrop. The hydrogen flame continued to burn in the background as the liquid oxygen tank vented a white cloud from the upper stage.
The sun rose at about 7 AM and it began to get hot. I wandered the grounds and counted about 50 busses, and if each was full when it arrived, then there were probably close to 2,500 people waiting for the launch.
About 8 AM, the announcer described a problem with the #3 engine on the core stage, and at about 8:45, the mission was scrubbed. We went back to the busses, rode back to the airport, and left for the day.
The Banana Creek viewing area is a great spot. It overlooks a large body of water. Launch Complex 39 is clearly visible, especially from high in the bleachers where it’s possible to see over the bushes at the water’s edge. I used a 500mm lens. At that location, the towers and rocket filled the frame. This lens is big, heavy, and unwieldy, but worth it.
Our instruction sheet said that there would be a limited supply of food and water. This turned out to be false. There are restrooms at the Banana Creek site (with running water) and the visitor center opened at 4:30 AM (with a food vendor inside), and other vendors offered snacks and drinks for sale outside the visitor center.
So, there was no launch. Hopefully we’ll get another chance to see it go.
