Florida
Rocket launch from Florida this weekend. Best places, beaches to watch
A so Florida thing is coming up — amid spring break season. A rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is scheduled to lift off this weekend.
SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a batch of Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit on Sunday, March 22.
Rockets here launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center near Merritt Island, Florida, or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and people in and around Brevard County usually have the best chance at seeing this phenomenon in the sky.
Weather permitting and depending on cloud cover and trajectory, a rocket launch from Florida’s Space Coast is sometimes visible as far north as Jacksonville Beach and as far south as West Palm Beach.
When there’s a nighttime launch window or very early morning, there’s an opportunity for unique photos — the rocket lights up the dark sky and the contrail after makes for a great photo.
Below is more information on the next rocket launch from Florida and suggestions on where to watch it in person (or virtually via the USA TODAY Network’s Space Team).
For questions or comments, email USA TODAY Network Space Reporters Rick Neale at rneale@floridatoday.com, Brooke Edwards at bedwards@floridatoday.com or Eric Lagatta at elagatta@usatoday.com. For more space news from the USA TODAY Network, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Is there a rocket launch from Florida today? Next launch is Sunday, March 22, SpaceX Starlink 10-62
- Mission: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.
- Launch window: 10:43 a.m. to 2:43 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 22.
- Trajectory: Northeast.
- Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
- Sonic booms: No.
- Live coverage starts 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space: You can watch live rocket launch coverage from USA TODAY Network’s Space Team, which consists of FLORIDA TODAY space reporters Rick Neale and Brooke Edwards and visuals journalists Craig Bailey, Malcolm Denemark and Tim Shortt. Our Space Team will provide up-to-the-minute updates in a mobile-friendly live blog, complete with a countdown clock, at floridatoday.com/space, starting 90 minutes before liftoff. You can download the free FLORIDA TODAY app, which is available in the App Store or Google Play, or type floridatoday.com/space into your browser.
Where to watch SpaceX rocket launches from Melbourne, Rockledge, Cocoa Beach and Merritt Island, Florida
Pretty much anywhere in Brevard, you’ll get a view of the rocket launch − in certain areas, you can get an amazing view of SpaceX rocket boosters returning to the pads. The best view to watch a rocket launch from the Space Coast is along the beach. However, visibility will depend on weather conditions and people should make sure not to block traffic or rights of way on bridges and to follow posted rules at beaches.
If you are viewing the launch along the Indian River in Titusville from Space View Park or Parrish Park, look east directly across the river.
If you are farther south along the Indian River, look northeast.
Playalinda Beach or Canaveral National Seashore is the closest spot to view liftoff because it is almost parallel to Launch Pad 39A. On the beach, look south along the coastline (you can even see the pad from some spots).
Some hotspots to check out:
- Jetty Park Beach and Pier, 400 Jetty Park Road, Port Canaveral. Note, there’s a charge to park.
- Playalinda Beach, 1000 Playalinda Beach Road, Canaveral National Seashore. Note, there’s a charge to park, and access to Canaveral National Seashore isn’t always granted depending on capacity and time of day.
- Max Brewer Bridge and Parrish Park, 1 A. Max Brewer Memorial Parkway, Titusville. Note, parking is available on both sides of Max Brewer Bridge.
- Space View Park, 8 Broad St., Titusville
- Sand Point Park, 10 E. Max Brewer Causeway, Titusville
- Rotary Riverfront Park, 4141 S. Washington Ave., Titusville
- Riverfront Park at Cocoa Village, 401 Riveredge Blvd., Cocoa (just before State Road 520 Causeway)
- Cocoa Village, near the parks and shops or near the docks
- Various parks on Merritt Island
- Rotary Park, 1899 S. Courtenay Parkway, Merritt Island
- Kiwanis Park on Kiwanis Island Park Road on Merritt Island
- Port Canaveral, with ships from Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean
- Alan Shepard Park, 299 E. Cocoa Beach Causeway, Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs.
- Cocoa Beach Pier, 401 Meade Ave. Parking fee varies.
- Lori Wilson Park, 1400 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Lori Wilson Park has a dog park, by the way.
- Sidney Fischer Park, 2200 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs.
- Downtown Cocoa Beach, along Minutemen Causeway
- Tables Beach, 197 SR A1A, Satellite Beach
- The Tides on SR A1A in Satellite Beach
- Various parks, including the Pelican Beach Clubhouse, in Satellite Beach
- Pineda Causeway
- Eau Gallie Causeway
- Front Street Park near Melbourne (U.S. 192) Causeway and U.S. 1 in Melbourne
- Indialantic boardwalk at Melbourne Causeway and SR A1A
- Paradise Beach Park, aka Howard Futch Park, 2301 SR A1A, Melbourne (this is a beachside park)
- Sebastian Inlet Park, 9700 S. State Road A1A, Melbourne Beach (there is a cost to enter)
Watch some rocket launches with NASA on Prime Video
Watch NASA+ content with Amazon Prime Video
NASA content, including some rocket launches, is available to watch through NASA+ on desktop, both from its official site and YouTube. The platform is also available to download as a mobile app on smartphones.
All NASA+ content is also available to those who have Prime Video downloaded on any of their devices – whether it be a smartphone or smart TV.
The content, which does not require a Prime subscription to view, is one of Prime Video’s FAST channels (free ad-supported television). Viewers can find it under Prime’s Live TV section at the top of the screen when they open the app.
Lianna Norman and Jennifer Sangalang are trending reporters for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, covering pop culture, rocket launches, Florida wildlife, breaking news and more. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://floridatoday.com/newsletters.
A 37-year-old man was jailed June 29 after Port St. Lucie Police reported finding nearly 5 ounces of cocaine, other drugs and firearms at his home, according to an affidavit.
Wallick Cooper, of the 800 block of Southwest Monica Street in Port St. Lucie, was arrested on charges including a single count of cocaine trafficking; two counts of possession of controlled substance without prescription; and three counts possession of firearm or ammunition by a felon.
Police conducting surveillance June 25 at a gas station in the 300 block of Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard reported a Mercedes-Benz arrived and backed in. Detectives reported seeing a suspected drug transaction between the driver and a man who approached the driver’s window.
Investigators stopped the Mercedes after it left, alleging the window tint was illegal. Cooper, the only occupant, reportedly “immediately began lying about where he was coming from and where he was heading,” an affidavit states.
He let police search the vehicle. They found no drugs but turned up about $1,000 they suspected came from drug sales, though Cooper “smirked and denied accusations,” the affidavit states.
Cooper was released from the scene.
Police told his probation officer about the encounter, and the probation officer on June 29 reported finding suspected drugs in Cooper’s home.
Ultimately, police got a search warrant, and they reported finding about 4.92 ounces of cocaine; about 12.9 ounces of marijuana; three firearms; and a small amount of pills.
Cooper has a medical marijuana card, but hadn’t gotten pot since February, according to police. Police reported the recovered marijuana wasn’t packaged “consistent with legally possessed marijuana.”
Cooper was held July 1 in the St. Lucie County Jail on no bond, a jail official said.
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
Garland Jones, recreational therapist and senior program director of the YMCA of South Florida’s special needs program, teaches Mackenzie Wesley, 5, to breathe safely in water by using a ping pong ball as a visual aid.
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WESTON, Fla. — Mackenzie Wesley sports a big grin and bright blue Lilo & Stitch swim gear as she runs into her weekly swim lessons. It’s fitting, because the 5-year-old has something in common with movie character Lilo: She adores water.
“Whether it’s the pool or beach, she enjoys it fully,” says her dad Steven Wesley.
Mackenzie isn’t alone: Many kids with autism share a natural love for water because it can be sensory bliss — the feeling on their skin, the pressure and the sparkle of the water can all be soothing. Lucky for her, Mackenzie lives here, less than an hour outside of Miami in a state that’s dotted with bodies of water.
But there’s a tragic reality tied to that fact, as Mackenzie’s mom, Brittany Bucknor, is all too aware. “In Florida, there’s water everywhere, and also with kids her age, and also just being on the spectrum, it’s a very — way higher — rate of having an incident of drowning.”
Kids with autism are 160 times more likely than other children to die from drowning, according to a seminal 2017 study from Columbia University. In fact, in Florida, most children drown in backyard pools. That’s largely because about half of autistic children have a tendency to wander from safe settings. That fact, combined with an attraction to water can make for a dangerous combination. Quality swim lessons can help.
That’s one of the reasons Mackenzie’s parents enrolled her in Swim Buddies, the YMCA of South Florida’s low-cost program aimed at children with disabilities. It’s also why the state of Florida, which has one of the highest childhood drowning rates in the nation, is expanding a voucher program on July 1 that will put children ages 1-7 who have autism at the front of the line for subsidized swim lessons. “We have tragic circumstances and stories across the state of Florida of young children with autism that are wandering away, they’re eloping from their homes, from their classrooms,” says Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, and one of the lawmakers who sponsored the bipartisan bill that changed the state’s swim vouchers.
“These [tragedies] are so preventable, but if that child at an early age does not have access to drowning prevention and swimming lessons, then those statistics will only continue.”
Recreational therapist Tiera Chaney works with Amir Williams, 6, during a recent Swim Buddies session.
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Once the updated law takes effect, many healthcare providers across the state will begin providing parents of newborns with information about drowning prevention and the state swim program, Eskamani says. Generally, the voucher comes out to about $200, she says, and pays for up to eight swim lessons.
A “whole-person” approach
The YMCA of South Florida has one of the largest adaptive recreational programs for kids with special needs in the area, including those with autism, who make up the fastest-growing group of children with disabilities. “We provide this program for those with a variety of disabilities, primarily over 60 percent of our youth who do come have a diagnosis of autism,” says Alison Bregman-Rodriguez, vice president of the YMCA of South Florida, where she oversees 64 locations, 27 of which serve children with learning differences. “This program, however, does serve all who want to feel like they belong.”
When Mackenzie’s parents learned that their local YMCA already had a robust and low-cost program for one-on-one instruction with kids with disabilities in mind, they jumped on the opportunity. “I really appreciate the program and specifically Miss Garland. She’s been very patient with Mackenzie and challenged her too,” Bucknor says.
She is referring to Garland Jones, who oversees the special needs recreational program here and also spends time working directly with swimmers, alongside other recreational therapists and trained volunteers. Jones agrees that patience is key in working with kids with disabilities, something that’s emphasized in the training for instructors. “We come at everything with a whole-person approach instead of just a physical approach. We do the physical, the emotional, the social.”
A selection of colorful, sparkly toys are often used for positive reinforcement and redirection in Swim Buddies lessons.
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The program’s hallmarks are individualization and one-on-one instruction rather than traditional group lessons. Staffers assess each child to learn about their needs and tailor their lessons in response. “We might have a kid who loves to get in the bathtub and splash around in the water or we might have a child who is very fearful of getting in the water,” Jones says.
On this recent summer Sunday, Tania Santiago Perez is sitting poolside, observing the Swim Buddies lessons. She is a professor at Florida International University who studies effective swim instruction for children with autism, including at this YMCA, with research partner and professor Tana Carson. Their research shows that when done right, swim instruction for kids with autism can help save lives. “The fact that we have been seeing that in five or six sessions they’re able to improve swim skills, to us, is very powerful,” Santiago Perez says.
Each lesson begins with group introductions to help swimmers build trust with the teachers and fellow participants in the pool. “That’s one thing to promote group cohesion and then the socialization with other kids,” says Santiago Perez. “Because with kids with autism, sometimes they’re very to themselves and that social behavior is one thing we want to develop.”
After the meet-and-greet, each child must wait to be explicitly told it’s safe to enter the water.
The adaptive swim lessons at the YMCA of South Florida serve more than 600 children with disabilities, but the program is overwhelmed with requests. Jones says she hopes the state will provide more funding to help facilities like theirs meet the need.
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Because many autistic children are prone to “eloping,” or running away suddenly, Santiago Perez says instructors are trained to stay no more than an arm’s length from each swimmer.
During one Swim Buddies session, a swimmer dashes out of the pool. “So the therapist is trying to redirect him back to get inside the pool,” says Santiago Perez as she points to the instructor gently but firmly guiding the child physically and with clear verbal commands.
Next, the instructor tries luring the child back into the pool with a sparkly pink rubber duck, which does the trick. “Toys help a lot because at the end of the day, they’re kids and kids learn by play and positive reinforcement,” Santiago Perez says.
In another corner of the pool, Garland Jones is working with Mackenzie Wesley on safe breathing techniques above the water because, in the past, putting her face under water has been uncomfortable and led to choking. Jones is using a bright blue ping pong ball in front of Mackenzie so she can see how her breath is physically moving the ball.
Once Mackenzie is eased in, Jones helps her practice blowing bubbles in the water, making a humming noise to show what it should sound like. “Hmmmm,” mimics Mackenzie. Then she ducks her head under water and pops back up, with a smile on her face. “Mackenzie has grown so much. I’m so proud of her,” says Jones, who’s been working with her in Swim Buddies for over a year. “We had a couple of instances where she was [swallowing] water a lot.” Now, she blows bubbles and goes under water like a pro.
Demand overwhelms supply of lessons
Parents looking on during Swim Buddies lessons have heard about the swim voucher program, and many were excited that it could make life-saving lessons affordable for lower-income families. “People who don’t have kids on the spectrum don’t take in mind that we’re paying a lot already for stuff like behavioral therapy, speech, occupational therapy,” says Augusto Sandino, whose son David has been in Swim Buddies for a year and a half. “All the programs, everything is money, man. So every little bit helps, and also, creating these inclusive communities is a big win.”
While Florida maintains a list of approved providers around the state, Jones and Santiago Perez both share the concern that many facilities lack enough qualified instructors. “You have people who are biters, spitters, who will scratch, things of that nature,” Jones says. “I just think we need more individuals who are trained in working with individuals with special needs so that they can be successful.”
The YMCA of South Florida is already overwhelmed with requests for its specialized swim lessons. Alison Bregman-Rodriguez, the vice president, says they do their best to find a spot for every child, but they don’t want to compromise the quality of lessons they provide. And while the voucher may increase demand, facilities like this often have to leverage other sources of money to keep programs like Swim Buddies afloat.
Researcher Tania Santiago Perez of Florida International University helped train some of the instructors at the Swim Buddies program. Her research has found that even after five or six quality lessons, most kids with autism showed improvement.
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Even before the new priority for children with autism, demand for swim lessons outstripped supply. “The problem is access,” says Santiago Perez. In the program’s first year, only about a third of families who applied for vouchers actually got them. She worries that the gap will only increase.
NPR reached out to the Florida Department of Health for details about how the changes to the swim program will work. They declined an interview and did not answer questions about how many vouchers would be available.
As Mackenzie Wesley’s swim lesson comes to an end, her parents wrap her in a towel and share that just a few weeks ago, she had a big milestone: She was invited to her very first pool party. “She was in the pool like she was a pro, an expert,” her mom says. “She had her little floatie and she was doing her own thing, so she’s been a lot more confident in the water and a way stronger swimmer for sure.”
This, says Garland Jones, is the kind of milestone that makes her work so rewarding. It means Mackenzie is on her way to having the skills that will allow her to embrace her natural love for water, and to do it safely.
Edited by: Nirvi Shah
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson
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