Has anyone been to a rocket launch at night?

[Tinkjon]

I want to see the launch on the 11th at around 3.30-4am. I'm planning on watching from the side of the 401 at Port Canaveral - has anybody done this? I understand it gets really busy for daytime launches but I'm wondering if the unsociable hour means it'll be less crowded and I don't have to get there so early?

[Pussycat Doll]

Yes we did a few years ago, got up at about 3am to see a shuttle launch. It was still fairly busy on the side of the road, was amazing!

[fatboytez]

We have been lucky to see two shuttles take off years ago evening and came over radio that over 50000 people where there so yes busy.

[Tinkjon]

Yikes, I was hoping most people would only want to see daytime ones! Oh well - time to work out whether to have a very late night or a very early morning then

[ERICSMUM]

I saw a shuttle launch at 1am (delayed from 9pm) from the side of the road down there (somewhere !). It was very busy. It was fab to see the launch 🚀 against the black sky.

[Gryff]

We've seen several both day and night one around dawn from our friends condo balcony and one at night from the same place one from the VIP viewing point our sons god mother works for NASA his and his now wife's 21st birthday gift from her and the best view on our 5 generation trip from HS on Memorial Day the place erupted itbwas the first time we encountered grid lock in a Disney park just an hour after rope drop and nobody was moving amazing
The second best from the villa pool when the launch route was altered slightly and our whole tiny community were watching

[FAMILY JACK]

Yes the last Shuttle launch still no idea where we watched it from, we were on route to the space centre an£ traffic was terrible, we noticed lots of people head off a slip road so we followed, ended up on a beach with a lot of Americans watching the launch which was fantastic, th3 sky lit up, a definite goosebumps moment.

[Stitch_Lover]

I was lucky to see shuttle launch at night back in 1997, at that time you could get tickets to park on Kennedy it’s self,

Very busy , on site and all roads around us was packed

While there in January, we saw a smaller rocket launch, it was just a orange dot in the didtance and this was watching from hwy 1 at Titusville

[ianc]

Tinkjon, The last shuttle launch was 7 years ago. They are not representative of the current rocket launches, so I don't know why people mention them. The Falcon is several times smaller and launches occur more frequently, so the level of interest from the public is an order of magnitude less. There is more interest in the Falcon Heavy (effectively 3 Falcons strapped together, so more impressive) or Delta Heavy, but even those are still much smaller than the shuttle was.

Watching after dark will be more impressive than during the day, as the rocket plume will light up the sky. I saw one at 9pm 10 years ago from the Cocoa Beach Pier. In the past couple of years I've seen launches of the Falcon from Pad 39A from the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville during the daytime, as you can see the launch pad from there, and there was plenty of room - no need to go particularly early there, just need enough time to walk part way up the bridge. Haven't tried to see launches from Pad 40 from Port Canaveral, so don't have first hand experience of that location, but I would expect it to be similar. Warning: be prepared to be disappointed by last minute postponements - it happened to me twice in April/May this year.

[pegasus928]

Actually the shuttle is smaller than the Falcon Heavy. 55 metres vs 75 metres.
The thing that generates the public interest these days is not just the take off but the return of the boosters. That is like something out of science fiction.