Thousands of people in the Space Coast ready to watch Artemis I launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - RVs were lined up at Jetty Park in Brevard County Sunday night as people camped out before the Artemis I launch to the moon set for Monday morning.  

People traveled from all over the country and world to see the SLS moon rocket liftoff right before their eyes from the Space Coast.

"It’s important to see history, I want to be as close to it as we can," said one person watching. "It's interesting to be here for the beginning of it and say yes I was here that day and got to see that happen and will remember this for the rest of my life."

It is expected that up to 500,000 thousand people will be in Brevard County for the launch.

"I’ve been wanting to see a rocket launch since 1958 when we first got into the space program and things were rolling," said  Bill McConkey who was visiting from Tennessee.

It has been a half-century since man has been to the moon and some remember watching the Apollo missions and when we first made history in 1969.

"My father got me out of bed at 4 am in New Zealand to watch the live broadcast of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon so I’m really excited to see a rocket of this size take off," said David Allport who is visiting from New Zealand.

While there is no human crew aboard for this mission, it's the first step of the Artemis program with the goal to return humans to the moon by 2025 and eventually land them on Mars.

"I may not live long enough to see us get to Mars, but I hope the young people today," said one person viewing the launch. "I hope that they will make it there one day."