An uplifting trip

Your patriotism will rise along with the shuttle when you're standing a few miles from the launch pad, eyes skyward and heart pounding.

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 13, 2000

CAPE CANAVERAL -- You see the huge puffs of smoke first. Then comes the fire. Then the roar, and the earth shaking beneath your feet.

Your eyes follow the space shuttle as it soars to the heavens. Its tail, the fiery orange of an overripe peach, flickers as the shuttle moves higher and higher.

Two minutes and 50 seconds into the flight, it is still visible.

Three minutes and 20 seconds later, it is just a speck of light in the sky.

Watching a space shuttle launch is an artistic, patriotic, goosebump-inducing buffet that serves most of the senses.

I grew up watching all sorts of launches, from a distance, at my Merritt Island home. Sometimes we knew when to expect one, but sometimes we thought the booms shaking the house were thunder when they were actually rockets heading into space.

From our house, about 15 miles from the launch site, spacecraft shooting through the clouds looked like thick sticks atop balls of fire.

But it was only recently that I got relatively close to a departing rocket.

To let non-VIP viewers get the full impact of a launch, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers launch transportation tickets.

The $15 ticket (which includes limited admission to the Visitor Complex) allows buyers to ride a comfy, air-conditioned bus to the NASA Parkway viewing site, about 6 miles from the launch pads. There's no fighting for space along the shoulders of more-distant U.S. 1 in Titusville or rushing to be one of the motorists allowed inside Jetty Park.

The launch pass will get you about as close as you can be without special clearance accorded to VIPs.

And the closer you get to the launch, the more you will get out of it. You will feel the ground shake, see the sky light up and experience a boom lingering in your ears.

I purchased a launch ticket to watch the shuttle Atlantis lift off at 6:11 a.m. on May 19.

To make arrival that morning a lot easier, the day before the launch I drove to my mother's house in Melbourne. I stayed up that night just long enough to catch the season finale of Frasier.

I woke at 2 a.m. and drove, bleary-eyed and sleepy, up Interstate 95 (first time I had ever gone 55 mph in a 70 mph zone) to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Included with the launch transportation ticket, which I had picked up the day before, was a placard that allowed me to drive through the police checkpoint and into the Visitor Complex parking lot.

Once there, all I had to do was get in line for a seat on the bus.

NASA makes 1,500 to 5,000 tickets available to the Visitor Center Complex, depending on how many VIPs and aerospace industry people are attending a launch.

Only 3,500 were sold for the May 19 liftoff. The early hour and the fact that this launch had been scrubbed three times had an impact on ticket sales.

It is important to get to the Visitor Center Complex early because the buses leave on time to meet the launch deadline. Stragglers will be left behind.

The launch transportation ticket viewing site consists of 4 miles of waterfront. The grassy area has food and retail vendors as well as restrooms. The countdown is broadcast over large speakers in the area.

You have an unobstructed view of the shuttle sitting on the pad from this site, a treat the folks in the VIP site aren't privy to (but they have bleachers over there). Many people bring bring blankets and pillows to sit on while they are waiting for the launch.

No matter how many times you've seen a shuttle launch on TV, being this close is a powerful moment. All your pride in America's space program and in the astronauts' "right stuff" comes bubbling to the surface.

After liftoff, and when the shuttle is finally out of view, the buses are loaded and return to the Visitor Center Complex. Shuttle watchers are allowed to tour the facility during normal business hours. Other tickets must be purchased to take the bus tour and to view the complex's IMAX movie.

If the shuttle launch is scrubbed, check out the Visitor Complex and the nearby Astronaut Hall of Fame. The hall, which is not affiliated with Kennedy Space Center, is just west of the center on State Road 405. It offers space program artifacts, astronaut mementos and a full-scale shuttle cargo bay.

IF YOU GO

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Launch Transportation Tickets are $15. Tickets for the next launch, which is scheduled for Sept. 8 at 8:31 a.m., are for sale by phone, (321) 449-4444, or online at http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com.

Between 1,500 to 5,000 tickets are available for each launch. Car passes are not available until April. NASA is evaluating the future of these passes and will probably distribute fewer of them in the future.

For information about the launch, visit the countdown Web site at http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/ or call (321) 867-2525.

The Visitor Complex is offering these new shows and exhibits:

Liberty Bell 7: Virgil "Gus" Grissom's 1961 capsule was recently recovered from 3 miles deep in the Atlantic. It is on display until Sept. 17.

Astronaut Encounter: Gives guests the opportunity to come face to face with astronauts, get autographs and ask questions. A schedule of appearing astronauts is available online at http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com.

Early Space Exploration: A walk-through exhibit that gives a comprehensive history of key missions that provided the foundation for the current space program.

Exploration in the New Millennium: An exhibit that takes visitors on a journey from the Vikings' discoveries of Greenland and Iceland to Mars Viking Lander, the first probe to land on another planet, in 1976.

Cape Canaveral: Then and Now: A special-interest tour highlighting the early days of space exploration, using historical sites that have seldom been accessible to the public. The $35 ticket price includes the space center tour and a special tour book.

GETTING THERE: To get to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex from the Tampa Bay area, take I-4 to SR 528 east to U.S. 1 north. Proceed 10 miles to SR 405 east, then cross the causeway to the complex.

GETTING IN: The Visitor Complex is open from 9 a.m. to dusk every day except Dec. 25 and certain launch days. Admission is $24 for adults and $15 for children 3 to 11.

On launch days, a $34.50 adult ticket and a $25.50 child ticket include the Visitor Complex Maximum Access badge, which allows visitors to take the bus tour and view the IMAX movie.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call (321) 449-4444 or visit the Web site, http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com.

To learn more about the Astronaut Hall of Fame, call (321) 269-6100 or visit the Web site, http://www.astronauts.org.

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