The Kennedy Space Center press site is one of the closest locations available to view the launch of a space shuttle, as seen above and below earlier this year for the final flight of Endeavour. Air Force authorities say the risk to shuttle watchers on KSC property is four times that of people on the beaches of Brevard County. / Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY file photos, 2011.
Are you here for the shuttle launch? If so, register at our Shuttle Watchers page.
Follow us on Twitter
Keep up-to-date on all launch week activity on our space blog, Flame Trench, at floridatoday.com/space. Find us on Facebook at Shuttle Legacy and The Flame Trench. On Twitter? Follow @spaceteam.
Other Final Flight stories
Interesting news stories abound in newspapers, on television, and the Web about the shuttles’ final mission and their legacy. Here’s a sampling of some of the most intriguing stuff in the national news media:
NPR scours newspaper Opinion Pages across the nation for how they say “So Long, Space Shuttle.”
Essayist in The New York Times looks ahead: “As Shuttle Era Ends, Dreams of Space Linger.”
End of an error? Space shuttle’s promise of frequent flights, small costs didn’t materialize.
The Washington Post reports that, as shuttle ends, Space Camp shifts focus to missions to new places, like asteroids.
CAPE CANAVERAL — Spectators watching America's last shuttle launch on Kennedy Space Center grounds will be exposed to four times greater risk than people gathered on Space Coast roadways, riverbanks and beaches.
About 45,000 KSC guests, including members of Congress, diplomats, celebrities and the families of Atlantis' four astronauts, will fill VIP sites for an up-close view of the program's 135th launch.
They'll be among as many as 750,000 to 1 million spectators expected to flock to the Space Coast for the 11:26 a.m. Friday blastoff.
And while the chances of a shuttle launch accident are slight -- the demonstrated probability is 1 in 134 -- danger exists, and NASA takes public safety seriously.
NASA’s space shuttle is 100 times more dangerous to launch-site spectators than other U.S. rockets, according to Air Force documents obtained by FLORIDA TODAY.
People watching the launch of Atlantis at KSC VIP viewing sites could be exposed to falling wreckage, toxic plumes and the shock waves that would accompany a launch explosion.
But the odds of spectators at KSC being injured or killed in a launch catastrophe are extremely remote.
Not a single spectator has been killed or injured in 60 years of Space Coast missile and rocket launches.
The Atlantis launch will be NASA’s 166th human spaceflight. By law, NASA is obliged to be as open as practical with its activities, and there always has been a high level of interest in U.S. human space launches.
So the agency must provide for both public involvement and public safety.
“We have to balance the fact that people are very interested in what NASA is doing,” said NASA Range Safety Manager Alan Dumont. “We have a public outreach mission.”
The public safety standards that govern launches from the Space Coast date back to a law passed by Congress in 1949.
Signed by President Harry S. Truman, the law states that missiles and rockets should be no more dangerous to the general public than aircraft flying overhead.
The Air Force since then has been entrusted with the responsibility for ensuring public safety, and the service performs Launch Area Risk analyses for every shuttle launch.
But interagency agreements give the director of Kennedy Space Center the responsibility for public safety on KSC grounds.
FLORIDA TODAY reviewed thousands of pages of Air Force documents that detail the risk posed to KSC workers, news the media, guests and the general public during shuttle launches.
NASA has a long history of inviting media and guests to its launches at KSC.
During the Apollo program, as many as 80,000 visitors crowded VIP viewing sites, some of which are as close as 3.5 miles from the launch pad.
The 1986 Challenger explosion, which killed seven astronauts, prompted an extensive review of launch area risk and the dangers posed to workers and spectators.
Debris rained down on a launch danger zone in the Atlantic Ocean that always is cleared of mariners before liftoff.
The disaster showed that shuttle solid rocket boosters would continue to fly like errant missiles, rather than tumble straight into the ocean, as previously predicted.
It also showed that wreckage could fall over an area larger than the 140,000-acre space center.
Then- Air Force Secretary Edward “Pete” Aldridge asked NASA to move all but essential personnel to U.S. 1 in Titusville —12 miles west of the KSC launch pads — during shuttle launches.
NASA and the Air Force compromised and set a limit of 15,000 guests. But that number has crept up to the estimated 45,000 that will be on hand at KSC on Friday.
NASA Range Safety Manager Dumont knows the risks well.
The shuttle and all other U.S. rockets are equipped with explosives that can be activated by remote control if a vehicle veers off course and endangers people on or around a launch site.
A former Air Force Missile Flight Control Officer, Dumont sent radio destruct signals to seven errant rockets to ensure wreckage would fall in the launch hazard area cleared before flight.
He knows the chances of an accident are low. He also knows the consequences of a catastrophe could be grave.
But Dumont had no qualms sending his family to a KSC VIP viewing site for an Atlantis launch in May 2010.
“I told them, ‘Pay attention,’ ” he said. “ ‘But remember, I’ve got everyone’s best interests at heart. So I’m going to be on console, and we’re going to do the right thing.’ ”
Contact Halvorson at 321-639-0576 or email@example.com