For safety reasons, including the noise and the possibility of a launch pad disaster. Also, debris is spread over a wide area.
We just watched the space shuttle launch from Largo, Florida. It's 138 miles away and we saw it very well in early twilight.
The closest is about 3 miles away if you are family to the astronauts. Other than that you can view it from the vistor complex at KSC or along the beaches.
Usually within 250 miles
That depends on how good your eye-sight is. How far can you see? ^Very funny. But seriously, I remember seeing the shuttle launch once when I was a kid growing up in N. Carolina, which must have been at least 500 miles from Cape Canaveral. ^^In that case at least 500 miles! ^^^uk sucks.
The Andromeda Galaxy is 12,904,531,200,000,000,000 miles away and the space shuttle orbits at 18,000 mph so to travel to the Andromeda Galaxy in the space shuttle would take 81.8 billion years which is around 18 times the currrent age of the universe!!!
We just watched the space shuttle launch from Largo, Florida. It's 138 miles away and we saw it very well in early twilight.
Disappears.
The closest is about 3 miles away if you are family to the astronauts. Other than that you can view it from the vistor complex at KSC or along the beaches.
Usually within 250 miles
It doesn't. The space shuttle never gets significantly closer to the Moon than its launching pad does (the space shuttle generally operates at a few hundred miles altitude, tops; the Moon is 240,000 miles away).
That depends on how good your eye-sight is. How far can you see? ^Very funny. But seriously, I remember seeing the shuttle launch once when I was a kid growing up in N. Carolina, which must have been at least 500 miles from Cape Canaveral. ^^In that case at least 500 miles! ^^^uk sucks.
The vehicle assembly building is about 3 miles away
The Andromeda Galaxy is 12,904,531,200,000,000,000 miles away and the space shuttle orbits at 18,000 mph so to travel to the Andromeda Galaxy in the space shuttle would take 81.8 billion years which is around 18 times the currrent age of the universe!!!
About 200 seconds after the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) break away from the NASA space shuttle parachutes are deployed at 15,000 feet and they land in the ocean. The SRBs usually land 140 miles off the coast of Florida where they float and are recovered by NASA. Once they are recovered they are refurbished and used on several other shuttle launches.
The space shuttle does not go directly to the ISS. There are many in-space preparations that have to be done before the complicated docking process can begin. The space shuttle systems need to be checked in orbit and the payload bay doors need to be opened. Since the Columbia disaster, there is also an additional safety check of the shuttle's thermal tiles by the robotic arm and boom. It usually takes some time for the shuttle to catch up with the ISS - about two days. It would be too dangerous to launch the shuttle directly towards the ISS and it is deliberately launched when the ISS is not passing overhead.
The moon is at an estimated distance of 320 000 km from the Earth. The shuttle is on average 350 km form the surface of the earth... that means that the moon is about 915 times further away from the Earth then the space shuttle!
The minimum safe distance is approximately 3 miles. This is the distance between launch complex 39A where shuttles are launched from and the Launch Control Center at the Kennedy Space Center. VIP visitors (congressional guests, guests of NASA and contract employees as well as celebrities) view launches from the Bananan Creek site at the Saturn V Center which is just beyond 3 miles away. Visitors may purchase tickets to view launches from the NASA Causeway which is 6 miles down river. Visitors can also purchase tickets to view launches from the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex or the Astronaut Hall of Fame. People are also able to freely view launches from the shoreline in Titusville, FL as well as Cocoa Beach, FL