scheduling a holiday to coincide with shuttle launch

been wanting to go to the kennedy space center for ages and thinking i may as well try to get there for a shuttle launch before they are scrapped.

how easy is it to plan a holiday to florida to coincide with a shuttle launch? i was thinking february 09, for two weeks, a week either side of the launch on the 16th ( valentines present for herself obviously ). i know id be really peeved if the launch got cancelled and i missed it though. is there any way to even remotely predict if a launch will be on schedule?

sometimes gets canceled due to the weather and other times for technical reasons, that's unpredictable but you can find out which are the launch windows to know how long to extend your stay to have another chance to see it.

We went on holidays to Florida in February and co-incided the trip with a shuttle launch. However, the prevvious shuttle launch in December was scrubbed and so the schedule was adjusted. Luckily, another shuttle launch was scheduled within the timeline of our trip over there.

The closest you can get to it is 12 miles away, unless you get a special ticket from kennedy space centre to enter their site - then you are 6 miles away but the tickets are sold out months in advance and are non-refundable if there is no launch. While it is worth the effort to see a shuttle launch if you are in Florida, I wouldn't head over there specifically for it. I thought the experience would be a bit better to be honest, and I was at a good site for it too. The sound of the rocket was audible enough when the rocket was high in the air, it wasn't exactly ear-shattering either.
We were here: 28°24'19.40"N, 80°38'58.33"W (see google map below)
Parked at the side of a freeway along with several hundred others 13.8 miles from the pad. This is almost due south of the pads and so you get a good view right across the water to the pad. With binos you can just make out the shuttle on the pad. From this location, you can see the shuttle take off and arc out over the Atlantic. The closest the public can normally get is about 12 miles but that is due west of the pad and so you don't see the curve as much as it heads away from you out over the Atlantic. The main road to KSC closes on launch days.

KSC needs at least 2 full days to tour properly. The launch we saw was very nearly scrubbed due to bad weather at the emergency landing runway in Spain so take note of that. It was only about 1 hour before take-off that the runway in Spain was re-opened!

Was just down there for the STS-124 launch, and viewed it from the KSC Visitors Center - about 6 miles from Pad 39A. If you can, get tickets for the NASA Causeway - you are about 4.5-5 miles away from the pad, and have great views of the launch. Alternatively, you can view it without going into KSC from anywhere along the Indian River in Titusville - you have a clear line of sight to the pad, though the traffic is a nightmare along A1A on launch days.

We were lucky with this launch - the processing flow was very smooth, and there were no weather issues. Keep an eye on sites like nasaspaceflight.com for processing flows for the upcoming shuttle flights, and on the KSC Visitors Complex web site for launch tickets - the Causeway tickets sell out in about 2 minutes flat. You definitely need 2 days to take in everything at KSC - the NASA Up Close tour is a definite must do (organise it before launch to see the Shuttle on the pad, we went the day after and saw the bad pad damage from only a few hundred yards). Take in the 'Dine With An Astronaut' package too at KSCVC, along with the Shuttle Launch Experience.

Michael - you needed to be closer. From KSCVC, it was a big WOW!