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This wildlife refuge comes with rockets

Florida’s Space Coast is home to NASA—and also manatees, sea turtles, and creatures that glow like stars.

By Terry Ward

Photographs by Robert Ormerod

PUBLISHED May 26, 2020

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-2 mission, Monday, May 25, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Photograph by Bill Ingalls, NASA

Will the resumption of human spacecraft launches lead to a rebirth of Florida’s Space Coast? The anticipated blastoff of a SpaceX rocket carrying two NASA astronauts could herald the return of the boom years for this 72-mile stretch of shoreline east of Orlando.

On May 30, if everything unfolds according to plan, the reusable Falcon 9 rocket will launch its Crew Dragon capsule on a mission to the International Space Station. It will be the first U.S. launch of American astronauts since 2011. When it lifts off, all eyes will be on the skies.

But there’s also a world to discover underfoot. Alongside NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, migratory birds fly and West Indian manatees swim. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the 140,000-acre marshy expanse surrounding the launch area, is a vital habitat for endangered and threatened species.

“You’ve got a center of next-wave technological advancement, and they’re doing it right here in a national wildlife refuge,” conservationist Duane DuFreese tells us.

Although COVID-19 has recently stalled tourism here, many are hoping that an ongoing schedule of launches will be the...

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This wildlife refuge comes with rockets

Florida’s Space Coast is home to NASA—and also manatees, sea turtles, and creatures that glow like stars.

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