Tourists flock to Florida to watch NASA launch a rocket to the moon.

Attend a rocket launch Moon it’s “a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says an emotional Joanne Bostanji as she prepares to watch the launch on Monday of America’s SLS mega-rocket, the world’s newest. POT and the most powerful in the world.

A 45-year-old woman who traveled from the north of England with her husband and two children for a space holiday in Floridadescribes his plan for D-Day: “arrive early in the morning and get a seat” at Cocoa Beach, near the Kennedy Space Center.

“I know it’s still a long way off, but I still think it will be a sight to behold,” Bostanji says as he and his family wait to enter the space exploration park.

It is expected that the launch of the mission will be visited by 100 to 200 thousand visitors. Artemis 1which will push the empty capsule onto Moon as part of the verification of future manned flights.

The “historic nature” of Monday’s flight, the first of several in the United States’ return to Moon“This is definitely generating a lot of public interest,” said Meaghan Happel of the Space Coast Tourism Authority in New York. Florida.

Traffic jams are expected from 04:00, the launch is scheduled for 08:33 (12:33 Moscow time). And more people may travel to the area if takeoff is delayed by bad weather, as the earliest possible date falls on a weekend.

Hotels on the coast have been full for weeks now, and parking spaces near the best viewpoints are limited.

space cruiser

Sabrina Morley is lucky: she rented an apartment near the beach and will go with two children and a few dozen other people on a boat chartered for this occasion by Star Fleet Tours.

For $95 a ticket, “we’ll go out to the ocean as close to launch as we can and watch the launch from the ship,” he says.

“I’ve never been this close to launch,” explains the 43-year-old, who grew up in Orlando, less than an hour away.

As a child, she could watch space shuttles take off from her backyard like a “big orange ball of smoke” rising into the sky, and even hear an explosion as they broke the sound barrier.

Morley like that program Sagebrush belonging POT seeks to bring a woman to Moonin a manned flight, scheduled no earlier than 2025.

“Representation is important,” he says, looking at his two-year-old daughter, who is already wearing a fake astronaut helmet.

Blessing for the economy

The return of space launches is an economic boon for the region. According to the tourism office, a family of three will spend an average of $1,300 over four or five days.

On the main road to Merritt Island, the peninsula where the Kennedy Space Center is located, Brenda Mulberry’s space gift shop is packed with tourists. T-shirts offered at the entrance sagebrush printed on the spot. Only on Saturday I made 1000 copies.

There has been an influx of customers in recent days, says Mulberry, who founded Space Shirts in 1984.

“They are happy to see the release POTbecause the business of the private space sector doesn’t motivate people that much,” he says.

This SLS rocket “belongs to the people,” adds Mulberry, showing off a large mock-up in front of his store. “This is your rocket. This is not a SpaceX rocket.”

Nostalgia for the Apollo program POT also present: 50 years have passed since the last manned flight Moonin 1972.

“My family had to go to the neighbors to watch (the Apollo missions) because they didn’t have a TV,” says Bostanji, who is yet to be born. “Now we will see him, hopefully live,” he says enthusiastically. (AFP)

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