Cocoa Beach became world famous during the 1960s due to America's space program. NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center is just 15 miles away. The town was home to many young families where one or both parents worked on some aspect of the space program.
When many of the space missions returned the town would hold Astronaught Parades.

Cocoa Beach is classed as the closest beach to Orlando being just 40 minutes away. It is also minutes from Port Canaveral where you could get a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. You can get an excellent view of any shuttle launches here too. There is a little known place near Port Canaveral called Jetty Park. They have food and refreshments there and an excellent view of the shuttle launch. They charge around 2 dollars to park your car. This place fills up early on the day of a launch, if you cannot get into the car park you can go further down and park your car and walk back on the beach to Jetty Park.

The beach itself is not as nice as some of the Gulf Coast beaches but still attracts a large amount of visitors. 

More info can be found on the Perfect Florida Villas forums or The Perfect Florida Guide