How to Get Tickets to a Shuttle Launch

Have you always wanted to see and feel a rocket launch in person? You can, if you snag a ticket to the next Space Shuttle launch. You and any of your favorite future little astronauts can have a thrilling experience with a little advance preparation and luck. Here is how you can pull it off.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Shuttle launch ticket sale email list
• Kennedy Space Center website
• Email address
• Computer with Internet connection
• Valid credit or debit card
• Telephone
• Sales agent at Kennedy Space Center
• Luck

1. Sign up for the shuttle launch ticket sale email list on the Kennedy Space Center website. Virtually all the web pages in the "launch" section have a place in the upper right corner where you can sign up for free. Enter your email address and hit the blue "Sign Up for Launch Info" button.
2. Monitor your email for a message from NASA. The email tells you when the next batch of shuttle launch tickets will go on sale. Normally they only sell tickets for one launch at a time.
3. Prepare to purchase the tickets as soon as they go on sale. Typically, NASA sells the tickets six to eight weeks prior to a launch. Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. are a favorite time to start the sale, so call in sick to work or come in late if you have your heart set on getting tickets.
4. Log on to the link in the email right at the sale start time or call the Kennedy Space Center at [phone] and place your order with an agent. Have your credit or debit card ready for immediate payment.
5. Pay for your shuttle launch tickets and make your travel arrangements.

Tips & Warnings

• Admission to the Visitor Center at Kennedy Space Center is included in the shuttle launch ticket price.
• NASA used to give out free car passes so that people could watch the launches from the Causeway, but they canceled that for security reasons in 2002.
• Have a scanner? Bring it along and tune it to 146.9400 if you are going to see the launch. The NASA television channel broadcasts on that frequency. Although there are speakers that will broadcast what they are saying at the launch site, sometimes they are hard to hear over the crowds.
• People have waited too long to pay for their tickets online and have lost them to someone else who paid faster, so never hesitate.
• Your ticket is considered "used" once you get on the bus to the ticket holder area at Kennedy Space Center. If the launch is scrubbed, you cannot come back the next day to try again without purchasing a new launch ticket.