There is a buzz about town about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo launch and landing on the moon. It is pretty amazing if you think about it. We launched a rocket from the Space Center. We landed on the moon. Then returned to Earth. The city of Cocoa Beach celebrated this amazing event with a parade and street party & I think it’s great they are doing it again to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
Our family did not move to Cocoa Beach until the 80’s, so I missed seeing an Apollo Astronaut parade, but I did see the Astronaut Parade that was held in Cocoa Beach in 1988 after STS26, the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery and the Return To Flight after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-26
The Return to Flight launch happened on September 28, 1988, and they returned to earth 4 days later on October 3rd and was certainly reason to celebrate. The end of October, Cocoa Beach brought back the Astronaut Parade to honor the 5 person crew and our return to manned flight.
The parade route was from Patrick Air Force Base to the Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn (today, this is the International Palms Resort). These are the photos I took from various spots along the route.
