Kennedy Space Center launch and cinematic drive-in …

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) offers “Launch and A Movie” as a drive-in experience in its parking lot to offer visitors something truly unique.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you see it) I was able to attend the event twice. You see, rocket science is very precise and the smallest variable can stop everything instantly. I was at KSC about a month ago when the launch was literally canceled (canceled) in the last seconds before launch.

Just a few days ago, Thursday, I was able to return to the event thanks to the scrub policy and allow myself to visit it again up to two times if the rocket launch was canceled for any reason. I previously performed a launch for the same reason as the launch on my first visit, a SpaceX Falcon 9 that puts GPS 3 satellites into orbit.

The beginning happened before the film in a slightly different way than the first time. However, both visits had a NASA guide explaining where to look at the skies what’s happening on the launch pad at the time, answering any questions that might have come straight to your car stereo, plus a relaxing classic soundtrack for circulation. . I wish this station was somewhere on Spotify or Sirius etc.

You don’t even have to stay in the car. After putting on your mask / face cover, you can go to the KSC entrance plaza and see some of the visitor complex’s missiles and grab a bite from the Rocket Fuel Food Truck. Pre-purchasing event tickets also allows you to pre-order a meal pack and collect it here. There is also a small area where you can buy souvenirs. Here are also the toilets for the event. Anything outside the turnstiles of the KSC tourist complex is not available for this event.

The cinematic part of the event was the IMAX movie, Hubble. The film, which is a decade old at the time, takes viewers on a journey through distant galaxies to explore the grandeur and secrets of our celestial surroundings and accompanies space astronauts as they complete history’s most difficult and important tasks, NASA proves and Hubble celebrate the legacy of the space telescope and its profound effects on how we see the universe and ourselves. It is also narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and this drew the passenger’s attention to me.

The big show is the actual launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. There is always some sort of mission going on, even the NASA guide referencing upcoming missions would mention the vague confidentiality of some of the upcoming launches saying “Top Secret Payload “or” Classified Recon Mission “. Tonight, a number of GPS3 satellites were programmed for GPS equipment, as well as a vague and briefly mentioned Space Force project.

About 10 minutes before launch, the screens placed in the parking lots were switched to a live feed from SpaceX Control in California, with live views of the launchpad in Florida, about 6 miles from the participants at the KSC parking lot.

Every rocket launch is something spectacular to see and hear, but a night launch is one of the elements that everyone must experience. The glow of the boosters when they turn on and the way it literally lights up the night sky for miles and soars into the sky is truly a sight to behold. While the launch can be seen tens of miles away (weather permitting), those nearby, like the KSC launch and a cinematic drive-in event, can literally feel the power of the launch. It takes a while for the sound to get to you (six miles from the launch pad, after all) but once it enters it’s loud and thunderous and you can hear every slightest vibration in the ground beneath your position.

While a camera can only capture so much, I set one up to capture the lighting in the night sky and followed the rocket as best I could as it went into orbit around the planet. You can see the video below. As an added bonus, you can see the disappointment (actually pretty funny) of an interrupted launch at the end of the video from our first trip to Launch and a Movie.