TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Launch fever has descended on central Florida’s “Space Coast” as NASA prepares to send astronauts toward the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

Locals and visitors who came in for today's launch are jockeying for a prime spot to see the Artemis II mission lift off, with some resorting to extreme measures.

Follow live updates about NASA's Artemis II moon launch here.

Pat Dimond traveled from Colorado to watch the historic event with her childhood friend Kathy Walker. They snagged front-row seats Saturday morning at the end of a pier at Space View Park, which is located across the Indian River from the launch pad. The area has clear views of the enormous Space Launch System Rocket and Orion capsule, which will carry humans for the first time on this mission.

With more than 30 hours still to go until the launch, Dimond and Walker were prepared to camp out on Tuesday to protect their spots. They even used a cable lock to secure their folding chairs to the dock.

Robert Pittman, 50, traveled from Dallas and contemplated sleeping in the back of his pickup truck to stake out a spot to set up his telescope.

And Aaron and Jessica Bialke drove 25 hours from Minnesota with their three young sons for a winter getaway. When they heard about the timing of the Artemis II launch, they extended their trip for the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

After several delays earlier this year, excitement has been building for the launch, which is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:24 p.m. ET. NASA ground crews have already started fueling up the 322-foot-tall rocket.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to try to catch a glimpse of the launch along the Space Coast, the nickname given to the parts of Florida’s Brevard County that surround NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, from Titusville in the north down through Cocoa Beach and Melbourne in the south.

The Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are expected to spend 10 days in space, orbiting the Earth then looping around the moon.

Although the astronauts will not land on the lunar surface, the mission is NASA’s first moon-bound flight since Apollo 17 in 1972, so interest has been high.

A previous, uncrewed launch of this rocket and capsule, the Artemis I mission, drew crowds to the area in 2022, but this go-round feels markedly different, according to Peter Cranis, executive director at the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

“In 2022 for Artemis I, we estimated between 200,000 to 250,000 people were from out of town,” Cranis said. “It’s very likely that we’ll exceed that.”

For Todd Seymour, 61, memories of watching broadcasts of the Apollo missions compelled him to make the trip from Columbus, Ohio, to Florida with his twin brother for Artemis II.

“I remember sitting in front of the black-and-white TV when we were wee little lads, watching Apollo 11,” he said. “To not have ever seen a launch before in person, that’s kind of a bucket list thing for us.”

Out on the pier at Space View Park, Dimond said the reasons she journeyed to Florida for this launch were deeply personal. Her husband, who died three years ago of Covid-19, was a self-professed space nerd since childhood.

“He had been a space guy since the beginning of [Project] Mercury. He went to space camp the first year that they let adults go. He knew everything about every launch and he always wanted to see a launch,” Dimond said.

She wanted to witness Artemis II lift off to honor his memory. As she gazed across the Indian River, Dimond touched her husband’s wedding ring, which she now wears on a chain around her neck. She also has a special keepsake ring imprinted with her husband’s fingerprints.

“He would be so amazed by this,” she said.

At the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex on Merritt Island, the Bialke family from Minnesota spent Saturday strolling through exhibits about NASA’s history and the future of commercial spaceflight. Their sons, 11-year-old twins Kade and Jace, and 10-year-old Gage, were brimming with excitement to see rockets and space capsules up close.

“We’ve been trying stuff out and pressing a lot of buttons,” Kade said.

The Artemis II event will be the family’s first time seeing a rocket launch in person. Aaron said they planned to drive into Titusville to find a viewing area that isn’t too overcrowded.

The influx of visitors to coastal stretches of central Florida, while challenging for traffic, is a major boost for the local economy.

Beachfront hotels sold out weeks, if not months, in advance. And many local businesses are getting in on the launch fun.

An Ace Hardware in Titusville featured a photo of the astronaut crew on its sign, advertising that the store carries all supplies needed for launch-viewing. A shop in Cocoa Beach was selling special launch merchandise, including an Artemis II Hawaiian shirt.

The Playalinda Brewing Company, meanwhile, created a themed pale ale dubbed Artemis IIPA.

“Back in 2022, Playalinda released an Artemis Pale Ale, but with this new venture, we wanted to step it up, so it became the Artemis II Double IPA,” said Ronnie Chabot, one of the company's four owner-operators.

After the beer was released on Feb. 3 — ahead of NASA’s first targeted launch window that month — Chabot said cans and draft sold out in days. The brew’s retro-looking labels show the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, with an “Easter egg” for space nerds: The moon is depicted in the exact phase it would have been had Artemis II launched in the February window.

When NASA was forced to forgo launch opportunities that month, Playalinda decided to make another, bigger batch. Those cans also sold out quickly.

“It was the fastest thing we’ve sold out at this brewery,” Chabot said.

Donald Atwell, another Playalinda owner and its brewmaster, said he used “the most space-themed hops” he could find — one called Galaxy and another called Comet — to create the Artemis IIPA.

Chabot, Atwell and the other co-owners grew up in Florida’s Brevard County and have been space fans for most of their lives.

“Seeing when the space shuttle program got shut down, and what it did to our local economy, and how much of a strain it put on, I think what excites us the most is to see this resurgence,” Chabot said. “It will be exciting times here on the Space Coast for next five years.”

If the next Artemis mission launches as planned next year, a new brew could be added to Playalinda’s collection.

“If Artemis III goes up, who knows?” Chabot said. “Maybe there will be a Triple IPA.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com