Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Overview
12The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. The "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit contains the Atlantis orbiter and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. The center also provides astronaut training experiences, including a multi-axial chair and Mars Base simulator. The visitor complex also has daily presentations from a veteran NASA astronaut. A bus tour, included with admission, encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center. There were 1.7 million visitors to the visitor complex in 2016.
The base admission includes tour-bus transportation to Launch Complex 39, the surrounding KSC property, and the Apollo/Saturn V Center. Previously, it used to have admission to the Astronaut Hall of Fame, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west. That building is now closed, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame resides in a new exhibit at the visitor complex, Heroes & Legends.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center, located 6 miles (9.7 km) north inside NASA's gates, is a large museum built around its centerpiece exhibit, a restored Saturn V launch vehicle, and features other space-related exhibits, including an Apollo capsule. Two theaters allow the visitor to relive parts of the Apollo program. One simulates the environment inside an Apollo firing room during an Apollo launch, and another simulates the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The tour formerly included the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF), where the International Space Station modules were tested.
The Visitor Complex includes two facilities run by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. The most visible of these is the Space Mirror Memorial, also known as the Astronaut Memorial, a vast black granite mirror through-engraved with the names of all astronauts who died in the line of duty. Elsewhere on the Visitor Complex grounds is the foundation's Center for Space Education, which includes a resource center for teachers and the Kurt Debus Conference Center, among other facilities.
Heroes & Legends, which replaced the previous Early Space Exploration exhibit, houses the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and several displays of artifacts. Among them are the Gemini 9A spacecraft and a recreation of the Mercury Control Center using consoles and furniture relocated from the original building at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. These were previously housed in the Mercury Mission Control facility on the National Register of Historic Places. Still, it was demolished in May 2010 due to concerns about asbestos and the estimated $5-million cost to renovate the building after 40 years of exposure to salt air.
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Shuttle Launch Experience
Heroes & Legends
U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame
Rocket Garden
Apollo/Saturn V Center
Journey to Mars: Explorers Wanted
NASA Now
Space Mirror Memorial
Planet Play
Step. Power. Launch.
3D IMAX Theater (Planet Play building)
Robot Scouts (closed)
Early Space Exploration (closed)
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