Space Shuttle launch tickets

[traxx]

Anyone know what the process if for someone here to get tickets to the "Banana River Viewing Site"?

On the NASA site it says you need to contact your local Congress Member. Just wondered if anyone knew if you could get these from the Embassy or alternative sources.

Otherwise anyone been to know which is the best of the public viewing locations?

[davido140]

I thought the last one had been and gone....

[Eric Mc]

davido140 said:

I thought the last one had been and gone....

Two more to go - officially.

[daveake]

Your 3 options are the space centre (closest public area, but no direct view of the launch pad so you won't see the shuttle till it's above the treeline), the NASA causeway (further out but clear view of the pad) and in or around Titusville (Space View Park is the best).

We were going to go for the causeway option for Atlantis STS-129 last November, but when the tickets went on sale the web site showed them as "sold out" when they weren't. So we opted for Space View Park which is free. For that you do need to turn up several hours before launch time to be sure of a good place. We arrived 5 hours before launch and the front view was already full, but we sat just behind and had a clear view of the launch.

Dave

[Summertime]

One more officially

[knight]

2 more according to NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.h...

[Clivey]

It seems pathetic and somewhat ridiculous that over the years NASA haven't built a massive viewing area that Joe Public can actually get into (whether paid or not) for their spacecraft launches. I was there last year for the launch of STS127, but we were in the space centre visitor center and the view was crap.

Edited by Clivey on Friday 13th August 10:14

[Eric Mc]

They used to have a viewing area about three miles from the launch pad. However, after the Challenger accident they stopped using it as it was deemed to be a bit too close to the action.

[Clivey]

Eric Mc said:

They used to have a viewing area about three miles from the launch pad. However, after the Challenger accident they stopped using it as it was deemed to be a bit too close to the action.

Actually, I remember seeing that viewing area on the footage from the day of Challenger's demise (that still makes my stomach turn - especially since they reckon at least some of the astronauts were alive until they hit the water ).

I'm sure they could think of something...although we'll need to see if they can get funding for any other manned missions first. - It seems that as a race, humans are still intent on infighting rather than pushing the boundaries of discovery, or indeed anything else constructive.

[Wheelrepairit]

We saw Atlantis go up in may from Titusville space park, great view, there 7 hrs before launch but good times had chatting to various folk from all over the world.

Just make sure you do go, I think about that launch everyday since I saw it, something im very pleased to have seen, and will never ever forget.