SPRING HILL — You can drive down to the Museum of Science and Industry on Wednesday, April 1, if you want to be among other space aficionados when Artemis II lifts off for an eventual rendezvous with the moon.

You also can watch from a computer screen, a phone or on your living room TV as there will be live coverage from NASA on YouTube and other space-loving streamers; indeed, the 10-day mission will get lots of news coverage from lots of sources.

MOSI’s “Artemis II Launch Watch Party: Launch Your Imagination with Unique Views of Liftoff” will start at 5:30 p.m.

According to NASA, the two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. on April 1, with additional launch opportunities through Monday, April 6. See NASA’s coverage activities at https://go.nasa.gov/4c46fOu.

MOSI offers a view

“MOSI, Tampa’s Museum of Science & Innovation, is all systems go to deliver Tampa Bay’s most unique launch viewing experience and an evening of family fun at its Artemis II Launch Watch Party, currently set for April 1 at 5:30 p.m.,” the museum said in a press release.

You can watch NASA’s broadcast on the eight-story-tall Digital Dome Theatre screen, gather outdoors to take in the launch with MOSI’s expert astronomers or add a VIP experience to see the launch as you sip a cocktail atop MOSI’s dome (for those 21 and up).

Before and after launch, there will be a Q&A with a MOSI astronomer, you can watch a 360-degree astronaut training film, and see the movie “Forward! To The Moon” in the Saunders Planetarium and Digital Dome Theatre.

Throughout the museum, interactive space-themed stations invite guests of all ages to engage with the science of the mission, building anticipation for the historic launch ahead.

The launch is under NASA’s control, not MOSI’s; if the launch is postponed, tickets will automatically roll over to the next launch date. Tickets to MOSI’s Artemis II Launch Watch Party range in price from $15 for MOSI members and children to $30 for adults and $45 for VIPs (21 and). Tickets are available now at mosi.org.

The Artemis II mission marks NASA’s first crewed journey around the moon in more than 50 years. According to NASA, the Artemis II voyage is another step toward “a sustained presence on the moon that will help the agency prepare to send astronauts to Mars.”

MOSI is in North Tampa at 4801 E. Fowler Ave.

Look eastward

If you were a crow and wanted to go to the Kennedy Space Center, just set a course due east and keep flying.

From Spring Hill, the space center is directly east of us, allowing views of all kinds of rocket launches. You can start by watching the countdown on your TV, then after liftoff race outside, look due east and wait a bit because of the curvature of the earth, and, if the weather is clear, you will see the rocket ascending. It will still be daylight so it won’t be as spectacular as a night launch, but you’ll probably see a contrail and perhaps booster separation.

That’s my plan, in any case.

It’s likely that we’ll have video from cameras on the rocket as well as inside the Orion spacecraft as it’s carried into earth orbit.

Hey, did you know, the first live views from inside a crewed U.S. spacecraft during launch were on July 15, 1975, during the final launch of the Apollo program, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project?

For the next few days, NASA will have live downlinks and status briefings.

On Monday, April 6, starting at 12:45 p.m., NASA’s coverage of the lunar flyby will begin. There could be a loss of communications as the spacecraft passes behind the moon.

According to NASA, “For a launch on April 1, the crew is expected to surpass the record for human’s farthest distance from Earth previously set by Apollo 13, at 248,655 miles from Earth.” That’ll be at 1:45 p.m.

That night, at 10:40 p.m., there will be another live downlink event.

At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10, NASA will begin its coverage of the crew’s return to Earth. Splashdown is set for 8:06 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean.