My Father works at the Cape. I saw the first couple dozen launches via his car pass access (3 miles away from launch pad). Believe it or not, at night you can see the glow from the shuttle's 3 main engines from as far away as Fayetteville, NC. We were visiting some relatives just outside of Fort Bragg. We knew it was going up and wanted to see if it could be seen. Most people up that way at the time didn't know anything about the shuttle going up or even where to look, but we saw it. It took a while after launch before it could be seen, but you could see the shuttle's main rockets burning as it flew east. It had long since jettisoned it's Solid Rocket Boosters by the time we saw it, but the 3 main engines were still visible. Granted, you don't see the bright flames or trail, but only the glow of the engines.