BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Betty Wright said her Cape Canaveral restaurant Southern Charm Cafe is known for its great breakfast food. As an added bonus, she gets a front-row seat just outside of her business each time a rocket launches from our Space Coast.
“We can see everything,” Wright said.
So far this year, there have been nine SpaceX launches from Florida. In 2022, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that he was aiming for up to 100 launches this year, including that of SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission with its liftoff from Kennedy Space Center set for early Monday morning.
“Astronauts doing that and going that far, it’s just amazing what they do. It’s incredible,” Wright said.
Crew-6 is scheduled to go up at 1:45 a.m. Monday from Launch Complex 39A. Onboard, NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will ride in a Dragon spacecraft for a 25-hour trip to the International Space Station.
Wright hopes these planned launches will bring big bucks to her restaurant and the Brevard County area.
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“With these launches, probably 40-50 percent,” Wright said, referring to the boost in business she sees when a launch is set nearby.
Longtime residents of Brevard County said the launches are not only great for business, but that they’re also just pretty cool to see.
Bobby Russo grew up in Cocoa and said watching our Space Coast launches never gets old.
“I’ve been seeing these launches since I was 5 years old as a kid. I’ve seen the space shuttle, the Apollo program...” Russo said. “My father retired from the space industry and just seeing the jobs that it brings and the income to this area, it’s just good for the country.”
Space enthusiasts packed Space View Park in Titusville on Sunday in anticipation of Monday morning’s early launch.
Jeanette Marmot and family visiting from England hope to catch the launch while in Florida on vacation.
“I shall be so, so excited. It’s unbelievable to see it, it really will be,” Marmot said.
Gunda Nolan said she has seen at least a dozen launches.
“Another part of the excitement is the people that are watching it and they’re cheering and applauding,” Nolan said.
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