8 March 2023, Space Coast USA, Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral –

Our tour of the Space Coast began in a familiar place. Although Melbourne Florida has an international airport, it is considerably smaller than its Australian counterpart; we were through it in about 15 minutes.  We liked the Town Hall, somewhat less grand than ours.

We crossed a high bridge over the Indian River, and onto one of the barrier islands that stretch for miles all along the Atlantic coast of Florida.  We turned north along the A1A, cruising through Indian Harbour and Satellite Beach, past the expansive Patrick Space Force Base, and on into Cocoa Beach. 

Pretty much anyone who grew up in the 60s is familiar with that name, thanks to the hugely popular TV show, I Dream of Jeannie.  The show was filmed entirely in California, but it put Cocoa Beach on the map.  This whole strip is lined with fabulously kitchy art deco hotels and resorts, in pastel blues, yellows and pinks. I really liked its cool, retro, laidback feel – much more fun and playful than Miami or Palm Beach.

But we weren’t here to see architecture or TV show memorabilia.  Cocoa Beach was (and still is) a popular hangout for NASA astronauts, and their “celebrity” lifestyles were infamous.  The original 7 Mercury astronauts bought shares in the Cape Colony hotel, now the La Quinta, and there is a commemorative sign to recognise the fact.

After our brief astronaut history stop, it was time to join the other space geeks heading for Port Canaveral.  The first launch attempt of the Terran 1 rocket was scheduled for 1pm.  This rocket is almost entirely produced by a 3D printer, making it unique.  We were fairly convinced it wouldn’t launch – no space company in history has ever had a successful launch at its first attempt – but we weren’t about to miss it, just in case they pulled it off.

We headed for Jetty Park, one of the popular viewing areas. But it seems the owners of the campground have introduced a fee based day pass for space tourists; you could only buy a pass online, which involved a complex account registration process. So we headed instead for Port Canaveral with its large, and free, car park.  The small restaurants here have become prime viewing locations.  It is a wonderful place for bird watching, particularly for the spectacular brown pelicans which glide gracefully overhead.

Being at the Port had a bonus – we could see three SpaceX vessels, and a recently flown booster, right across the water.  We saw Megan, a Dragon capsule recovery ship, named after astronaut Megan McArthur, who flew on the second Spacex crew mission.  Behind that was Doug, a recovery ship used to retrieve boosters and fairings, and also to tow drone ships in and out of Port Canaveral.  It was named after Douglas Hurley, who piloted the final NASA shuttle flight, and commanded the first manned SpaceX orbital mission.  Third in line was the drone ship Just Read The Instructions, one of three such ships used to recover Falcon 9 boosters; most recently from the Crew 6 mission to the International Space Station, which flew on March 2.  What’s more, we could see a recently flown booster that had returned from the Atlantic, where it had landed upright on one of the drone ships (if you have never seen footage of SpaceX boosters returning to Earth, check it out – it’s amazing).

As these things are, the Terran 1 launch was delayed, and delayed again.  We lined up several times along the cruise terminal fence line in hopeful anticipation, only to hear that the countdown was on hold.  At one point they got as close as 70 seconds, and we were all getting excited.  But eventually they ran out of time to fix whatever the problem was, and the exercise was scrubbed at 3.30pm.  The space geeks all headed for home, to try another day.