Marcus changed his vacation plans to coincide with the launch of the Artemis mission to the Moon, which departed early on November 16 from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida.
He traveled with his teenage son and his wife to the Sunshine State attracted by the “spectacular” takeoffs of NASA rockets, especially this one, which is the largest and most powerful that has ever gone into space.
“It was incredible and very exciting. Especially the night launches, it is something that you have to see at least once in your life”, explains Marcus Hoffmann in statements to the voice of america.
A few hours after launch, when it was already dawn, this European family was trying to do their last shopping at the souvenir shop closest to the Kennedy Space Center.
Economic boost in the area
Like them, many others come to Cape Canaveral attracted by rocket launches and the aerospace industry in general. This represents a good economic injection for businesses in the area that were greatly impacted during the pandemic due to the closure of international travel restrictions.
These days, many stores that sell products with the Artemis insignia cannot keep up with everything they are selling with items related to this mission that intends to return to the Moon after fifty years and mark a before and after in the trips to that satellite and Mars.
“Tourists come every day from all over the world,” says Brenda Mulberry, owner of the Space Shirts store, admitting that many merchandise is out of stock thanks to the interest in the successful launch.
four postponements
The launch of the rocket was to have taken place at the end of August, but some technical failures in one of the engines and in the cooling system forced the takeoff to be postponed. It happened up to four times, once due to problems in the operation of the machinery and another two due to the threat of hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
“Many people have come since there was the first launch. Many came and said: Well, we haven’t seen the launch, but at least we got a souvenir T-shirt,” the business owner said with a laugh.
“I drove ten hours”
Brenda was able to watch Artemis launch from her backyard. She has barely slept, she has opened the store and from the first hour tourists have not stopped arriving.
Carlos Hernández, originally from Mexico, drove from North Carolina, where he currently resides, to Florida expressly for that.
“I heard that there was going to be a new attempt to launch Artemis. So I did ten hours of walking, but for something as exciting as this, ten hours is nothing”, says the young man.
“It is important to have a memory of this day”
Between mugs, t-shirts and caps, he hopes to find a good memory of the day Artemis set sail for the Moon. “I think it is very important to have something that reminds you of special moments. Especially, a historic moment. Being able to have a shirt, a T-shirt, a cap or a small item that reminds you of this is very important, at least for me,” he says.
Not only souvenir shops benefit. Also other businesses related to tourism. Restaurants, the days before and the day of the launch, see a greater influx of customers, something that also benefits them financially.
The hotels in the area are close to full occupancy and finding a hotel room, no matter how simple it may be, is practically an impossible mission.
Faced with this flood of tourists, many business owners are already rubbing their hands waiting for the next launch. This time it will be very soon, it will be on November 21 and it will be a SpaceX satellite, which will also attract thousands of tourists to that area.
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