Living in Brevard County offers a whirlwind of benefits, including close proximity to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). “Location, location, location,” you’ve heard it said many times before and it’s true, where you live matters a lot in terms of convenience, opportunity, and a little bit of fun too. Here are five benefits of living in Brevard County thanks to our close location to the Kennedy Space Center.

#1. Watch Rocket Launches

Seeing a rocket launch into outer space is a thrilling experience that few get the opportunity to experience. Living in Brevard means you can watch rockets launch into outer space virtually from your backyard. The Kennedy Space Center maintains a countdown on their website that details when the next rocket takes off. At the time of writing this, there are 12 days and 21 hours until the next one goes up, up, up and away!

#2. More Job Opportunities

The Kennedy Space Center isn’t just a cool place to watch rocket launches and celebrate our nation’s history. The center is focused on numerous research and educational endeavors, including the management of robotic and commercial crew missions, food production research, and In-Situ Resource Utilization for off Earth exploration—and that’s just to name a few things going on around here.

It’s hard to imagine just how many job opportunities are available thanks to the Space Center. To help give you a better picture, the Center spreads across 144,000 acres and offers around 700 facilities. Some of these facilities include the massive 525-foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building used to stack NASA’s largest rockets. There’s also the Operations and Checkout Building, responsible for housing astronaut crews. And don’t forget the 3-mile long Shuttle Landing Facility.

Living on the Space Coast gives locals a lot of great job opportunities to choose from in tech, aerospace, engineering and more. While there are already a lot of great careers to choose from, there are even more on the way. Hundreds of jobs are expected to hit the Space Coast in the next couple of years. According to a February report released by Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, Brevard’s unemployment rate continues to go down and is currently at or below 5%.

#3. Great Educational Experience for Kids

Kids love the Kennedy Space Center and parents love it too because of all the learning opportunities it offers. You can do something different every time you come, the center is broken up into “Mission Zones,” or grouped attractions and experiences that play-on different periods of time and major achievements. The center frequently welcomes astronauts and other accomplished individuals to the center. Plus, there are 14 NASA visitor centers and space shuttles at ONE location.

#4. There’s Always Something to Do

Living in a place like Brevard with proximity to the KSC ensures there’s never a shortage of fun things going on. For one, we get a lot of visitors to the area for pleasure and business, hence Brevard’s ongoing development of new hotels. Brevard offers beautiful homes for great values and you don’t have to worry about boredom because there’s always something to do regardless if it’s space-related or not.

Fun Facts About The Kennedy Space Center

To get you even more excited about your move to Brevard, here are some fun facts about the Kennedy Space Center.

• It was originally built in 1963, and remains one of ten National Aeronautics and Space Administration field centers.
• Brevard’s KSC has served as the primary launch center since December of 1968.
• The KSC welcomes around 1.5 million visitors every single year.
• A large portion of land at the KSC serves as a vital wildlife preserve; Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Canaveral National Seashore and Mosquito Lagoon Indian River are all part of the landscape.
• Several on-site facilities are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Since 1968, it has served as the launch site for every single manned space flight in the US.
• The Launch Complex 39 is located here, this is the launch complex of the historic lunar launch of Apollo 11.
• One of the most famous facilities on site is the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), which is the fourth largest structure by volume in the world.