When you add somewhere between 100,000 to 500,000 people for a single day event, traffic will likely be a big deal. Those numbers are fluctuating estimates from come from the Space Coast Office of Tourism and from folks at the Cape, according to Don Walker, the communications director for Brevard County. They’re all making their way to Florida’s Space Coast for the planned launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission set for August 29.

Walker notes that there are a couple additional factors at play: there will be five cruise ships docked at Port Canaveral and kids will be making their way to school in the runup to the two-hour launch window opening at 8:33 a.m. EDT.

“We anticipate major amounts of gridlock, especially in the northern part of the county,” Walker said. “So, our goal on Monday is to use social media and try as much as we can to communicate to people where they shouldn’t be heading.” 

Brevard County has seen its fair share of major launch events, like the return to manned spaceflight with the SpaceX Demo-2 launch in 2020 or the first Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018. But the Artemis I mission marks the first Moon-bound heavy lift rocket from NASA since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

The Artemis I mission will be an un-crewed test launch of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew capsule.

The Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) and municipalities across the county sent out traffic plans to let residents and visitors know how things will flow leading up to and following the launch. 

Walker said that because of the dynamics of Brevard County, when you get the influx of people in one day that are expected, it’s not possible to fully mitigate the gridlock. The county is 72 miles long, but only 20 miles across at the widest. 

That’s why the Brevard County Emergency Operations Center will do what they can to communicate through multiple channels and let people know what the traffic situation is like as the launch morning goes on. 

“There’s nothing we can do to really stop gridlock, but we can at least let people know where there is gridlock so they either get there and they’re prepared or they can avoid it,” Walker said.

Brevard County’s EOC is one of the busiest in the country, due in large part to the increasingly frequent number of launches from the Space Coast, both at Kennedy Space Center and at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It activates for every launch from the Cape.

Typically, they will activate two hours prior to each launch, but given the unique circumstances surrounding the Artemis I mission, they will activate four-and-a-half hours before launch.

“So, we’ll be activating at 4 o’clock in the morning, Monday morning and we anticipate we’ll start seeing traffic on the road though as early as two o’clock in the morning,” Walker said.

The Space Coast TPO anticipates that the worst of the traffic will likely occur between 5 and 10 a.m. EDT on Aug. 29. Walker hopes that people will plan accordingly since it will also be a hot, summer day and suggests that people pack snacks and plenty of water to stay healthy, especially on the off-chance that they’re stuck in their cars for a long time.