[soulbow]

Living in Florida, I've been fortunate enough to see a few shuttle launches, as well as various rockets. The sound is really an incredible thing. I watched the last one from the bridge stretching from Titusville to the Kennedy Space Center, about the closest one can get without needing a pass. At that distance, the sound takes around 30 seconds to reach the viewers and it's not even that loud, but you can feel the power behind it.

Even more impressive, I watched STS-131 from my hometown one morning. Even from the West Coast of Florida, I could hear the unique sound and power from the shuttle.

I drove around 400 miles round trip to see the last Shuttle Launch, but it was completely worth it to see, in person, humans going into space. If every member of Congress could experience that at least once, NASA would likely not have any more funding problems.

[Ronkdar]

I'm jealous. For the last three years, living in Daytona, I've vowed I would drop everything to see the very last launch. And then they extended the program, and the launch was in the summer while I was out of state.

[soulbow]

My plan for the last one was to go to Daytona since I figured the traffic would be horrible in Titusville and the Shuttle takes off to the north anyway. I ended up driving South until I hit traffic, which happened to be extremely close to the launch. I live out of state most of the year, so I was happy to hear the last launch would be during the Summer.

Though it wouldn't have worked well on the last launch due to the clouds, I'm sure there's other launches you could have seen from Daytona.

Another anecdote: The first launch I saw when I was a little kid, probably seven years old. I was riding in the back seat of my mom's car and happened to look out the back window. When I looked back, I saw the a fireball rising into the sky, which of course was the shuttle.

Also, about two years ago, I was driving home with my girlfriend one night and we saw a star which seemed to be moving higher into the sky. Suddenly, it disappeared. I couldn't find any mention of rocket launches until, after extensive searching, it turned out to be a secret CIA satellite.

[djjose]

After years putting it off I finally drove up in the wee hours from Miami for the last launch and caught it on the same bridge (Max Brewer Bridge) mentioned earlier. Small world! It only took 3 hours to make it up which just led me to regret not making more trips up for it. It was truly spectacular, and the nerd in me nearly jumped out of my skin!

[Ronkdar]

Cloud cover permitting, all launches were visible from the Embry-Riddle Aero. Univ. campus in Daytona, as well as other rocket launches. If the winds blew in the right direction you still heard a decent roar, as well.