'It's bred into you': Cocoa neighbors, friends share launches, memories by river | Kennerly
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It's just what you do here: watch rockets and spirits rise — and yes, share word of a scrub — in this tree-lined Cocoa neighborhood near the Indian River.
People who live around here walk "down to the river," to a grassy spot where Highview and Indian River drives meet, to watch launches. Whether it's early morning, or late night. Whether it's a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink internet satellites or the towering Artemis I moon rocket.
Some chat with strangers. Some bring visiting guests. Some come an hour or so before a launch. Some hurry over at the last minute.
Sometimes, they sit on the aging wooden bench near the brick River Heights sign that announces this neighborhood a block off Indian River Drive, where many homes were built around 1958 — the same year NASA was formed and more than a decade before Neil Armstrong plonked a foot on the moon's surface.
Some come alone. Some come in groups of two to 20 or more.
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Everyone, at some point, picks their spot and looks skyward to the northeast, across the 528 Causeway and the river, to pin down the towering Vehicle Assembly Building and then figure out where the rockets will pop up in the distance.
Some who've lived here before even come back to see "big" launches, like that of the Artemis mission.
It's "just bred into you, this launch thing," said Dina Franklin, who grew up in River Heights and now lives in West Cocoa.
Around 7:45 a.m. Monday, she parked her vehicle just down the street from where she lived as a kid, and sat awaiting go-or-no word on the Space Launch System rocket.
She checked her devices periodically for launch updates; read a little of former NASA astronaut Mark Mullane's 2006 book, "Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut."
Franklin called herself a "rocket kid," — one who went to Fairglen Elementary and who recalls going to the Vehicle Assembly Building as a sixth-grader when a crew returned from a mission.
She raised her kids here. Knows every street, from riding her bike on them with other children. Remembers the Mercury and Gemini days, "when your china cabinet would shake when they went off."
Who knows how many launches she's seen? Dozens, for sure.
"This is just my life," Franklin said. "So you just don't miss them. You watch from your yard if you can, or you come down to the river to watch."
Some see the launches as a point of pride.
"I have been to the Space Center many times," said Regina Kear Reid, who had hoped to watch with others from a friend's patio.
"When I first moved to Florida, I saw the space telescope being launched. My neighbor was an engineer on that project. Now I can watch the launches from my back yard. Every time I see one go up, it makes proud of the USA."
Some people who watch launches here just happen upon it.
Some, like Tom Roman, don't live here but made it a point to stop Monday. Roman, a resident of Indian River Colony Club in Viera, is a retired pilot and former paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. He picked River Heights for a great view along his 30-mile early morning bike ride: "I wanted to stop at the highest point (in the county) and get the thrill of it," he said.
Some who wander down to the river are members of multigenerational families.
Three generations of the Wald family came by just a few minutes before the launch was officially scrubbed: Karen Wald, her son and daughter-in-law Christopher and Melody, and their children.
The kids — Ashton, 15; Abel, 13; Averi, 10; and August, 7 — got a day out of school.
When you live in a place where you can walk a few hundred steps, round-trip, and see history being made across the water — that's what you do, said Karen Wald, who's lived here for 36 years.
"I've really seen everything happening. But this ... it's seeing it with these guys — August's only seen a couple of launches," she said.
As she and her family started back up the street toward home and word of the scrubbed launch spread, Dina Franklin got out of her vehicle and stepped quickly toward them.
She and Karen Wald exclaimed delight in seeing each other.
They hugged. Hard.
"We were neighbors when I was a kid, down the street here," said Franklin.
And they'll be back.
All of them, most likely, whenever a rocket points heavenward.
It's what you do.
It's bred into you, remember, this launch thing.
Contact Kennerly at bkennerly@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bybrittkennerly Facebook: /bybrittkennerly. Local journalism like this needs your support. Consider subscribing to your local newspaper. See our current offers.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Cocoa neighbors, friends share launch spirit, awaiting Artemis
