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12/20-12/21/2024, Friday-Saturday - Aborted SpaceX Rocket Launches

joraintree
Dec 21, 20243 min read

We learned that a SpaceX rocket launch was scheduled for Friday night at 10:39pm, so we decided to head to the Cape Canaveral area to try to get close and watch it.


Before leaving the area we had breakfast at a a local restaurant called Tim's Corner Cafe. We saw a few clues that Tim is a huge Buffalo Bills fan.

We found a place in Cocoa Village (on the mainland) to park, and we decided to bike over to the barrier island that is home to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral.


There were several bridge crossings. Thankfully, most bike paths were separated from the busy road like this. However, on the first bridge it was not separated, and we had to really crank up our speed.

Yay, we made it to Cocoa Beach!

We took the sidewalk south toward the walkable downtown area of Cocoa Beach. We passed this enormous Ron Jon Surf Shop and thought it looked like a temple or something.

We popped into a dive bar called Hunkerdown Hideout. A good band called The Sheep Dawgs was playing, but the stage was in a tiny courtyard/hallway area with little standing room. Very bizarre.

We had dinner at a nearby restaurant called Poke Poke. You guessed it, they serve Poke bowls, but you get to pick the base, protein, and toppings. It was cute, and the food was good, although we failed to get any photos.



After dinner we headed north to Cape Canaveral to get closer to where the rocket would be launched. Here is a better view of the giant Ron Jon Surf Shop (since we passed it again on our route north).

The first place we tried to go to watch the rocket launch (Jetty Pier Park) was closed, so we biked over to a restaurant with a rooftop bar. It was also closed. We found a waterfront restaurant with large patio, though. We had a drink and caught the last song from a band, then we learned the launch had been postponed until midnight.


There are lots of cruise ship terminals in this area, so we saw several of them moving about.

Unfortunately, this restaurant also closed before the scheduled launch, but we were directed to another area to try to watch it.



We found a spot we thought would be good enough, pulled up the live stream, and started getting excited. Then the countdown was like 3-2-1-0-Abort. :(

So, we didn't get to see the rocket launch, but we did see a SpaceX booster across the way that we were told had recently been delivered by barge.

We started back home, and Cara thought the pedestrian symbol (an astronaut) on the shared path was cute and totally appropriate for Cape Canaveral.

We took our time heading back to the mainland, arriving after 2am. Here is a video of our 32.81 mile biking route this trip:




The rocket launch got postponed until the next night at midnight, so we decided to stay another night and try again to watch it.



This time we stayed in the cute downtown Cocoa Beach area and thought we could ride our bikes from there if we wanted. We worked during the day, then walked around in the evening.

We found this cute beach access and decided that would be a great place to watch the launch. It was a cold night, though, so we hoped the nearby beachfront bar with patio would be open late enough.

The bar would be open late enough, which was good. It had a nice vibe, and we even caught a little live music. We decided to go eat dinner, add more clothing layers, then return later for the launch.

We found a gastrobar called 4th Street Fillin Station, and it was good. Eric enjoyed his shrimp and grits, and Cara liked her gluten free pasta and salad.

We went back to add more warm clothing layers, and that's when we learned that the launch had been scrubbed again. Womp, womp! That killed any motivation to go out again, so we just went to bed. Another launch is scheduled from a different launch pad for the next night, but we don't want to wait around forever, so we decided to move on in the morning.

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