Many beachside hotels along the state’s Space Coast were already at full capacity before Wednesday’s scheduled launch, a local tourism executive said.
NASA has urged spectators to stay away from the Kennedy Space Center for Wednesday’s SpaceX launch to limit the spread of the coronavirus. But officials from cities and counties around the launch site, an area known as Florida’s Space Coast, are expecting large crowds to gather to watch the country’s first astronaut launch in nine years.
The size of the crowds could still be affected by the weather, local officials said. People would be less likely to make the trip if it looked like the forecast might delay the launch. But local news outlets reported launch viewers were already gathering along the beaches and roadways in prime viewing areas on Wednesday morning.
Last month, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, asked people to watch the launch from their homes.
“When we launch to space from the Kennedy Space Center, it draws huge, huge crowds and that is not right now what we’re trying to do,” he said at a news conference.
The visitor center at Kennedy, usually a prime spot for spectators, will remain closed to the public. The launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, carrying two NASA astronauts, Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken, is scheduled for 4:33 p.m.
But outside Kennedy Space Center, NASA has little control over crowds.
Peter Cranis, executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism, said he expected a couple hundred thousand people to flock to the beaches and parks, noting that launches in NASA’s glory days had drawn as many as half a million spectators.
