Crowds gathered at Kennedy Space Center Wednesday evening to watch the Artemis II rocket lift off. CBS News’ Rob Marciano spoke with the Ross family, who traveled from Colorado Springs and pulled their daughters out of school for the opportunity. They arrived early and spent many hours waiting on site — from about 7 a.m., finally gaining access to the viewing area around 1 a.m. — and were due to fly home the next day, so seeing the launch mattered deeply to them.
Marciano said spectators could feel the launch from roughly 7–8 miles away, and many in the crowd appeared joyful and relieved. At Space View Park he talked with children who were visibly excited: Carly said, “It was really cool,” while Emily told him, “It was the coolest thing I’ve seen ever.” A boy nicknamed “Commander Jack” ran around enthusiastically and declared he was ready for Mars after witnessing the liftoff.
The broadcast noted that the mission itself was not yet complete, but attendees were celebrating this major milestone and grateful they had made the trip to watch it.