Space Coast Blogger

There’s a scene right out of Pirate’s of the Caribbean playing at Port Canaveral. The first ship to enter the ghost fleet was the Liquid Vegas in May of last year. The company filled for bankruptcy and the ship has been sold, however its still docked at the port.

Then SunCruz Surfside Princess was the next to enter the abyss, it last set sail on Dec 13 and its parent company Ocean Casino Cruises also filed for bankruptcy.

Then two more ghost casino ships appeared out of nowhere, the SunCruz VIII from Myrtle Beach and the SunCruz VI from Jacksonville. We’ll keep an eye out for Capt. Jack Sparrow and more casino ghost ships.

Pictured is the Carnival Dream entering Port Canaveral for the first time on Nov 18, the ship began regular service on Dec 12. Carnival’s largest cruise ship can accommodate 3650 passengers and is 1004 feet long and 158 feet wide. The newest of Port Canaveral Cruise Ships will embark on seven-day Caribbean cruises.

Yesterday I photographed the Liberty Star at Jetty Park towing one of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) from the STS-129 mission in which Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Nov 16 at 2:28 p.m. EST.

The way the SRBs are retrieved from the Atlantic after a launch is pretty cool. The SRBs themselves will be refurbished and readied for a future shuttle launch from KSC.

The SRBs are 149.16 ft long and 12.17 ft in diameter, weigh 1,300,000 lb at launch.

The possible next generation manned launch vehicle, the Ares 1, launched today from Kennedy Space Center. The Ares 1-X test launch was spectacular. Go NASA!

Here’s my view from my place at the beach in Cape Canaveral .

Today and yesterday I had a chance to watch the Cocoa Beach Air Show. One of the best pictures I took was of the F-16 from the Viper Team East Heritage Flight with a Korean War era F-86 Sabre.

Here is the F-16 alone as it streaks downward.

A C-17 with it’s landing gear down.

These two are of a F/A-18 Hornet.

Here a HC-130 performs a refueling exercise with two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters from the 920th Rescue Wing stationed at Patrick AFB.

The Geico Skytypers were lighting up the sky with messages.

The show opening featured the Skytypers, the Golden Knights and a Biplane.