The Space Coast is a region in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

around the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

(KSC) and

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...

. It is one of several "themed" coasts around Florida. All orbital launches from American soil carrying NASA astronauts (running from

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

in 1961 to the end of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

program in 2011, and since 2020 using the

SpaceX Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched Private spaceflight, private m ...

) have departed from either KSC or Cape Canaveral. The Space Force Station has also launched unmanned military and civilian rockets. Cities in the area include Port St. John, Titusville,

Cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

, Rockledge,

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

Merritt Island Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Floridian coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and sout ...

(unincorporated),

Cocoa Beach Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,539 at the 2018 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The first non-native s ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Satellite Beach Satellite Beach is a coastal city in Brevard County, Florida, U.S. The population was 11,346 at the 2020 United States Census, and it is located with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Indian River to the west. Satellite Beach is part of t ...

Indian Harbour Beach Indian Harbour Beach is a coastal city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,225 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is nort ...

Indialantic Indialantic (officially incorporated as Indialantic-By-The-Sea, though the official name is seldom used in casual parlance) is a town in Brevard County, Florida. The town's population was 2,720 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the ...

, Melbourne Beach, Palm Bay, and Viera (unincorporated). Most of the area lies within

Brevard County Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in T ...

. It is bounded on the south by the

Treasure Coast The Treasure Coast is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is located on Florida's East Coast, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and comprising Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. The region, whose name refers to the Spanish Treasure ...

, on the west and north by

Central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the Gr ...

(and is economically tied to that region), and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. One reason rockets are launched from the Space Coast has to do with the Earth's rotation. The Earth rotates from west to east, most quickly at the equator, and to take advantage of this, adding the speed of rotation to the orbital velocity of the rocket, it is most beneficial to launch eastward from a location near the equator. Launching from an uninhabited location on an easterly coast at low latitude, minimizing the danger posed by debris from a failed launch, is ideal both for the safety of the people on the ground and for fuel efficiency of the rocket. Given the high population densities in coastal

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, South Florida, and Puerto Rico, the Space Coast is often considered the best location when all factors are taken into account.

Space-named landmarks (outside KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station)

Many places near the Cape are named for subjects relating to the US space program including vehicles, astronauts, and the spaceport itself. *

Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he beca ...

Park, Cocoa Beach * Apollo Boulevard, Melbourne * Apollo Elementary School, Titusville * Armstrong Drive, Titusville * Astronaut Boulevard, Cape Canaveral *

Astronaut High School Astronaut High School is located in Brevard County, in the city of Titusville, Florida, United States. It is part of the Brevard County School District. The school's name comes from its location, near the Kennedy Space Center. The school was built ...

, Titusville * Atlantis Elementary School, Port St. John * Bayside High School, Palm Bay * Challenger 7 Elementary School, Port St. John * Challenger Memorial Parkway, ( State Road 407), Titusville * Chaffee Drive, Titusville * Christa McAuliffe

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

, Merritt Island * Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, Palm Bay * Columbia Boulevard ( State Road 405), Titusville * Columbia Elementary School, Palm Bay * Columbia Village, Melbourne (

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. Appr ...

) * Discovery Elementary School, Palm Bay * Endeavour Elementary

Magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

, Cocoa * Enterprise Elementary School, Cocoa *

Freedom 7 Mercury-Redstone 3, or ''Freedom 7'', was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an as ...

Elementary School, Cocoa Beach * Gemini Elementary School, Melbourne Beach * Grissom Parkway, Cocoa *

I Dream Of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marrie ...

Drive, Cocoa Beach * John F. Kennedy Middle School, Rockledge * Jupiter Boulevard, Palm Bay * Kennedy Point Park, Titusville * MILA Elementary School, Merritt Island (an abbreviation for "Merritt Island Launch Area") * Minutemen Causeway, Cocoa Beach * NASA Boulevard ( State Road 508), Melbourne *

Ronald McNair Ronald Erwin McNair (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission spec ...

Middle Magnet School, Rockledge *

Satellite Beach, Florida Satellite Beach is a coastal city in Brevard County, Florida, U.S. The population was 11,346 at the 2020 United States Census, and it is located with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Indian River to the west. Satellite Beach is part of t ...

* Satellite Boulevard, Cocoa *

Satellite High School Satellite High School is a public high school (grades 9 - 12) located in Satellite Beach, Florida in Florida's Space Coast, Brevard County. It was founded in 1962, and has been rated an 'A' school in the state of Florida since 2003 . The mascot is ...

, Satellite Beach * Shepard Drive, Titusville * Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School *

Space Coast Stadium USSSA Space Coast Complex is a baseball stadium and 13 diamond multi-sports facility in Viera, Florida, owned by Brevard County, Florida. Under its original name, Space Coast Stadium, it served as the spring training facility for the Florida Marli ...

Viera, Florida Viera (pronounced /vjɛrə/) is an affluent, master-planned community located in the central coastal region of Brevard County, Florida. It is part of an unincorporated section adjacent to the Melbourne, Florida area. For census purposes, it is divi ...

* Space Coast Surge, a member of the

Florida Winter Baseball League The Florida Winter Baseball League, based in Miami, Florida, is a professional baseball organization located in Florida. It is based in Pompano Beach, Florida. History The Florida Winter Baseball League (FWBL) was a professional sports league, ...

played out of Cocoa in 2009 * Space View Park, Titusville *

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

Drive, Titusville

Telephone area code

When the region became too heavily populated to be served by only one

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

, a local resident Robert Osband (aka Richard Cheshire) discovered that

area code 321 Area code 321 is the area code serving Brevard County, Florida, Space Coast Region and Seminole County, Florida. The area code has been in use since November 1, 1999; it was assigned to Florida (instead of suburban Chicago) after a successful petit ...

was not assigned to any other territory (though it was being considered for the suburban Chicago area).This includes most of the county except the Southern portion. If each number is pronounced individually—"3, 2, 1"—the pronunciation resembles the countdown before liftoff; thus, the resident petitioned for the code to be assigned to the Space Coast region. His efforts were popular among local residents and resulted in success; the new code officially became effective on November 1, 1999.

Tourism

Because it is home to

and

the local area is popular with visitors to watch rocket launches in person. Over 100,000 people are believed to have been present in February 2018 for the

Falcon Heavy test flight The Falcon Heavy test flight (also known as the Falcon Heavy demonstration mission) was the first attempt by SpaceX to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6, 2018, at 20:45 UTC. The successful test introduced the Falcon Heavy as the m ...

. It is home to

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tour ...

US Space Walk of Fame The American Space Museum is a museum in Titusville, Florida. It includes the US Space Walk of Fame, an outdoor plaza on the Indian River that honors both the astronauts and the NASA and contractor personnel who made American manned space explora ...

, and the

Air Force Space and Missile Museum The Air Force Space and Missile Museum is located at Launch Complex 26 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. It includes artifacts from the early American space program and includes an outdoor area displaying rockets, missiles, and spa ...

. Nearly 1 million people were present to watch the last space shuttle launch in 2011. 150,000 people were present for the

Crew Dragon Demo-2 Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named '' Endeavour'', launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 booster, and carr ...

launch. The area is also home to many space-themed businesses. 750,000 to 900,000 people gathered on the space coast to watch the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

launch in 1969. The area also sees Christmas tourism, as thousands of people attend the Surfing Santas festival in

(by Cape Canaveral) over the holiday season.

Media

''Brevard Business News'' is a weekly newspaper in

Melbourne, Florida Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located southeast of Orlando. As of th2020 Decennial Census there was a population of 84,678. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. ...

, United States covering business news and trends for the Space Coast. Fred Krupski started Brevard Business News in 1981,Mathers, Sandra
"She Mastered World Of Weekly Newspapers"
''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'', April 18, 1997. Retrieved on May 26, 2011. and Adrienne B. Roth purchased it in 1986.

Notes

References