Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the perfect place to visit with the start of the new school year just around the corner and many summer camps ending, as parents are looking for fun but educational experiences to round out summer vacation.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers an interactive learning experience that kids will love. From the earliest days of America’s storied space program, Kennedy Space Center has captured the world’s imagination as the epicenter of mankind’s greatest adventure. Today, at the Visitor Complex, kids can learn about the past, present and future of the space program and the role that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects play.
Here are the top 5 fun learning activities/attractions at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex:
Guests experience the inspiring accomplishments of the U.S. space shuttle program at the unique $100 million, 90,000-square-foot Space Shuttle AtlantisSMattraction (see image below), where visitors get nose to nose with a real spaceflown orbiter. Space Shuttle Atlantis is displayed as if floating in space – the only space shuttle orbiter in the world exhibited this way. Guests also can train on various realistic simulators: take a simulated spacewalk, land the space shuttle on the shuttle landing facility, operate the robotic Canadarm or dock with the International Space Station. Shuttle Launch Experience, part of Space Shuttle Atlantis, is an incredible journey of vertically launching into space and orbiting Earth aboard the space shuttle. Guests also strap in for an all-too-real simulation, which immerses visitors in the sights, sounds and feelings of a space shuttle launch, including simulated weightlessness.
The new Great Balls of Fire interactive exhibit opened this month and allows guests to discover the risks that asteroids, comets and meteorites present to our planet. The exhibit explores how we keep track of near-Earth objects while examining the effects of possible impacts. Within the Great Balls of Fire exhibit is Asteroid Encounter, where guests can climb aboard a “spaceship” and blast off to the asteroid belt and Jupiter while compiling data about asteroids and comets. Guests also can explore what would happen if one of these celestial bodies were to hit their hometown, determine Science Fact or Science Fiction of Hollywood movie clips and much more.
KSC Up-Close Explore Tour gives an insider’s view of the U.S. Space Program, from the launch sites of today at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the past and future of space exploration at Kennedy Space Center. The KSC Up-Close Explore Tour includes up-close views of the massive, 525-foot-high Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) (one of the largest structures in the world) and the Shuttle Landing Facility. The tour stops in between the Kennedy Space Center launch pads for a close-up photo opportunity, in front of the VAB, and on the NASA Causeway where guests are surrounded by a panoramic view of launch pads at Cape Canaveral that are currently accommodating rocket launches by NASA, SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center features dramatic multimedia shows and numerous hands-on displays that provide visitors with an inspirational and exhilarating look into America’s bold quest for the moon. Guests relive the historic launch of Apollo 8 at the Firing Room Theater, then marvel at a monstrous 363-foot long Saturn V moon rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built and one of only three Saturn V rockets in existence. The Apollo Treasures Gallery showcases treasures from the Apollo moon missions, including Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard’s spacesuit and the Apollo 14 Command Module, Kitty Hawk. July 16 marked the 45th anniversary of the lift off of Apollo 11, which landed the first humans on the moon.
Also new at the Visitor Complex are hands-on, science-based “Activity Adventures.” The activities, each lasting from 90 minutes to two hours, provide guests the opportunity to launch a water rocket (Rockitz), create and then land a rover on “Mars” (Rover Lander Drop) or race a jet car (Super Jet Cars). See image below.
Admission is $50 + tax for adults and $40 + tax for children ages 3-11. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers annual passes starting at $75 + tax for adults and $60 + tax for children ages 3-11. Space Shuttle Atlantis, Shuttle Launch Experience, Apollo/Saturn V Center, and Great Balls of Fire are included in daily admission.
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