Just a heads-up that SpaceX is going to launch their Falcon Heavy on its first test flight from the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow Tuesday Feb 6 with a time window of 130-4pm. Falcon Heavy is three regular Falcon 9 rockets strapped together basically. From the SpaceX website:
The first test flight of Falcon Heavy is targeted for Tuesday, Feb. 6th from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.
With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)---a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel--Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.
Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9. Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.
I bet a daytime launch of a rocket this size could be seen from the WDW area. If I couldn't drive over to see it live in person from somewhere on the coast, I would go over to the Contemporary Resort area (BLT, crosswalk, CR) and look out over Discovery Island (in that direction). Elon Musk says it might blow up but if it does, he hopes it clears the launch pad and does no damage to it (would delay other launches).
And as with all space launches, sometimes they get scratched and rescheduled for a different day.
I'll be watching the live stream. But it would be neat to see a launch as part of a WDW vacation (our poster jimsig did so back around Halloween).
Bama Ed
PS - and yes, assuming FH gets up in the air, they will attempt to land all three boosters. The two side boosters will come back to KSC within 10 minutes of liftoff and the middle/third booster will land on the barge in the Atlantic as they have in the past. I think the landings of the boosters is more cool than the liftoffs. But I am a nerd that way...