About our rating systemIn the late 1960s, Central Florida was the most exciting place on Earth, thanks to the moon. Kennedy Space Center was established on Cape Canaveral in 1958; boosted by a star-studded lineup of heroic astronauts, its visitor center ruled the tourist circuit alongside Disney in the 1970s.
That was then. KSC, which is on the Space Coast about an hour east of Orlando, is still worth the trip to see the launchpads where it happened, but it has lost its way somewhat as an educational facility. For optimal touring, start at opening time. There may be a Chat with an Astronaut going on (that’s an hour-long presentation in which an actual astronaut talks about their experiences and answers questions; they’re announced on www.kennedyspacecenter.com/events; 9:45am and 2pm except Sun.; another $50 adult, $35 child), a free Astronaut Autograph Signing, while the free Mission Status Briefing (both are listed on the Daily Schedule) fills you in on all the projects they’re currently working on here. Otherwise, proceed instantly to the can’t-miss Bus Tour, which leaves every 15 minutes from 9:30am to until about 2:15pm, and takes most people around 3 hours. Be warned that catching the last buses of the day doesn’t leave you enough time to browse—go early and do the Visitor Complex, where you first parked, afterward.
Coaches with live on-board narration zip you around NASA’s tightly secured compound. Combined with the nature reserve around it, the area (which guides tell visitors is one-fifth the size of Rhode Island) is huge, but you’ll be making one stop not too far away. You’ll see the distant launch sites used by the shuttle and by the Apollo moon shots. You’ll buzz past eagles’ nests, alligator-rich canals, pads now leased by private contractors SpaceX and Boeing, and the confoundingly titanic Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, where the shuttle—which NASA folks call “the orbiter”—was readied. It’s just one story tall, but it’s a doozy: The Statue of Liberty could fit through those doors with 200 feet left over. The main bus stop, the Apollo/Saturn V Center, is themed “Race to the Moon” and begins with a mandatory 5-minute film and then a full-scale mock-up of the “firing room” in the throes of commanding Apollo 8’s launch, in all its window-rattling, fire-lit drama—to skip that 30-minute show and get to the good stuff, pass through. The adjoining hangar contains a Saturn V rocket, which is larger than you can imagine (363 ft. long, or the equivalent of 30 stories)—our modern SLS rockets are even bigger. Don’t overlook the chance to reach into a case to touch a small moon rock, which looks like polished metal. The presentation in the Lunar Theatre, which recounts the big touchdown, even includes a video appearance by the late, reclusive Neil Armstrong. There’s a cafeteria here and a few places back at home base, but there is nowhere else to eat within a 15-minute drive. (You can bring your own food in small, soft-sided coolers.)
After that, hasten back via the bus to the Visitor Complex for the grand finale: The $100-million home of the space shuttle Atlantis. The way in which it’s revealed to you, which I won’t spoil, is spine-tingling. Hanging 26 feet off the ground at an angle of 43.21 degrees (like the numbers in a launch countdown), it’s still covered with space dust, and it now tips a wing at everyone who comes to learn about it on the many interactive displays that surround it. On that building’s lower floor, don’t miss the commemorative Forever Remembered. Alongside favorite mementos provided by 11 of the 14 families of their crews, you’ll find respectful displays of a section of the hull of the Challenger, lost in 1986, and a slab of cockpit windows of the Columbia (lost in 2003), still encrusted with grass and mud from where it fell to Earth. You can also try the Shuttle Launch Experience, in which 44-person motion-simulator pods mimic an 8-minute launch with surprising, bumpy, but not nauseating, sensations. The souvenir store across the plaza is out of this world.
But once you’ve completed the bus tour and Atlantis, it’s up to you whether you want to plumb the other business at the Visitor’s Complex (IMAX, a Peanuts-themed puppet show, a few other play-oriented diversions). Sad to say it, most young people simply aren’t aware of the incredible things the space programs did and the sacrifices required to achieve them, and at KSC that baseline education about the historic timeline is lacking. Delaware North, a private vendor that normally operates food service at stadiums and airports (and once tried to trademark the names of the century-old lodges of Yosemite National Park for itself when its contract wasn’t renewed), runs KSC—no tax dollars are used. That results in something far more like a tourist attraction than a museum, which is a disservice. Exhibitions are overproduced and mimic Hollywood tropes. You’ll hear so much John Williams–style symphonic atmosphere music in a relentless manipulation of your emotions that your ears will ring with trumpets for hours.
At least take the time to check the 42-foot-high black granite slab of the Astronaut Memorial, and Heroes & Legends, which pays tribute to the 100-odd explorers in the Astronaut Hall of Fame and where you’ll see the impossibly low-tech Mission Control for the Mercury missions (they used rotary telephones to put men in space!), plus a tiny Mercury capsule and some authentic era spacesuits. (Astoundingly, the actual Mercury command building was torn down in 2010.) Gateway, a 2022 addition, ostensibly about deep space, has four immersive films seen from gently moving chairs, but it’s not particularly good and has a terrible, slow-moving line, so it can be skipped for time.
Despite KSC’s increasing shortcomings, a visit still gives you a rare chance to see where miracles and tragedy unfolded, and you might glimpse today’s geniuses working on tomorrow’s explorations. Prepare by doing some advance reading before arriving and familiarize yourself with the various stages of NASA’s progress from Mercury to Gemini to the Space Shuttle to today. Also download KSC’s free app, which helps you weed out the nonsense with maps and a schedule of shows. You can also pay extra for Fly with an Astronaut, during which an astronaut actually conducts your tour of the complex where they once worked ($206 adults, $181 kids 3–9, including admission; 5 hr.). Gray Line bus (www.graylineorlando.com; 407/522-5911) does a $157 day tour to KSC from Orlando ($79 if you just want a round-trip ride).
Kennedy Space Center Special Tours
Astronaut Training Experience—KSC dubs the program ATX, but you could call it Space Day Camp. Over 5 hours, you’ll test simulators of planet rovers, spacewalks, or Mars explorations and try a mock-up of a launch. Nothing is as intense as what astronauts experience, but this session is still plenty rigorous for most terrestrials, and the facilitators can answer nearly any question you can launch at them. The most options are available on weekends only, but many weekdays, you can book one-off time slots on a single simulator (such as for microgravity training or walking on Mars) for $30. www.kennedyspacecenter.com/landing-pages/atx. 866/737-5235. $175 age 10 and older, adult participant required for ages 10–17, includes admission to KSC, minimum age 10.
