About 6,000 alligators live around the island. In the refuge, you’ll spot shorebirds, turtles, bald eagles, manatees and, of course, alligators. Only five percent of the refuge is used for NASA’s operations. The space centre is part of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which covers about 140,000 acres. KSC is located on 55-kilometre-long Merritt Island, Florida’s largest barrier island. Florida’s Space Coast has 116 kilometres of shoreline and dozens of tourist destinations, but the most buzzworthy stop is KSC. I flew into Orlando and rented a car for the 64-kilometre drive east to the Atlantic Ocean. Because 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, I decided it was time to plan a trip to Florida’s Space Coast to reconnect with my earlier passion. When I left JSC in 1995 to pursue new adventures, my one regret was that I never made it to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the epicentre for manned Apollo and shuttle launches.
While there, I met astronauts who jetted off into space, shared the elation of the first shuttle launch and felt the pain of the Challenger explosion-indelible memories still. Working at JSC felt like a calling, an opportunity to work for the greater good of humanity. My initial job was menial, but it’s hard not to be inspired when you drive past a Saturn V rocket-the same kind that took astronauts to the moon-on your way to work every day. I worked for 16 years at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, starting as a 16-year-old dishwasher in the visitors’ cafeteria and eventually working my way into the Mission Control building. I have no idea if that story is true, but the point remains: We are all part of something bigger than ourselves. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.” What are you doing?" The man responded, “Mr. Kennedy visited NASA’s Launch Operations Center in 1962 and encountered a janitor. I remembered a famous story about how President John F. I held my six-year-old son in my arms and watched from the back of a cruise ship that had just left Port Canaveral, Florida.Īs the shuttle disappeared through the clouds, I couldn’t help but feel personal pride. In June 2007, the space shuttle Atlantis rose through clouds of steam and fire, slowly rolling and rapidly accelerating toward space. The Kennedy Space Center Tour is a can’t-miss chance to feel like a real astronaut! With the Kennedy Space Center Express, you will save time in the morning, by bypassing all the pickups and going straight to our final meeting point at ICON Park.A trip to the Kennedy Space Center embraces the past and celebrates the future. This is the best expansion Kennedy Space Center has ever offered, giving you yet another reason to visit. Guests can conduct a virtual EVA or extravehicular activity practice docking to the ISS extract cargo from the payload bay create sonic booms and glide to a landing on the Re-entry Slide experience the sensation of floating in space explore a high-fidelity replica of the ISS virtually mate Atlantis to the external tank kick up a virtual chemical reaction to launch the shuttle get an “X-ray view” of Atlantis’ interior experience an orbital sunrise strap in to the sights, sounds and sensations of a shuttle launch take the helm at the shuttle cockpit, and much more.
More than 60 interactive, touch-screen experiences and high-tech simulators invite guests to “be the astronaut,” bringing to life the people, passion and patriotism behind NASA’s 30-year Space Shuttle Program as well as the complexity of the engineering marvel that launched the Hubble Space Telescope and built the International Space Station (ISS). Give yourself enough time to explore Space Shuttle Atlantis! The world’s most comprehensive attraction devoted to the space shuttle, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Space Shuttle Atlantis brings visitors nose-to-nose with the priceless Atlantis spacecraft as only astronauts have seen it before – with payload bay doors open as if it were floating in space. You’ll also be able to view IMAX movies, giving you a 3D look into what it’s like to walk on the moon, and visit the rocket garden for a surreal experience surrounded by giant rocket ‘flowers.’ One of the many highlights of your day will be the Shuttle Launch Experience, a space simulator that gives you a taste of what the astronauts feel when they lift off.
This will help you have all the information you need to ensure you make the most our out your time at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
You’ll have access to restricted areas, walk under the massive Saturn V rocket, and even meet and greet an astronaut from the Space Program!īy riding the Gray Line Orlando bus, you will enter the facility with your tour guide who will provide an orientation tour of the facility. Be a part of history in the making as you explore the ins and outs of Kennedy Space Center on this out-of-this-world day tour.