Human’s ultimate journey to the outer space was his biggest success ever. Because of this many of us wanted to experience the same excitement the astronauts are experiencing. Visit the Kennedy Space Center (near Titusville) and experience a day in space… while staying safely here on the blue planet Earth.
Kennedy Space Center located not even an hour from Orlando, Florida belongs to the most visited places in Central Florida. Your Orlando, Florida vacation is not complete without dropping by at Kennedy Space Center. The space center possesses a visitor’s complex wherein everyone can take a closer look on everything that is inside the space center. It is the only place on earth where you can get to mingle with veteran astronauts, take a tour on launch areas, see giant rockets, train in spaceflight simulators and even view an actual rocket launch.
Tours At Kennedy Space Center
For aspiring astronauts, Kennedy Space Center conducts guided tours. In the tour, you can experience the historic Apollo 8 Launch. Also be amazed with their massive 363 foot-long Saturn V Rocket at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, and get to see the NASA’s space shuttle launch pads at the LC-39 Observation Gantry. The Kennedy Space Center tour departs from the visitor’s complex every 15 minutes. Tour guides are trained space experts of Kennedy Space Center. For vacationers to experience the pleasure in the Today and Tomorrow Tour, it is advised to book a reservation online.
Every visitor of the Kennedy Space Center is given a chance to take home official NASA souvenirs and collectibles. Kennedy Space Center also offers a wide variety of well detailed toys, autograph books, shirts, hats, and jackets. Apollo program artifacts are also available for purchase, including the actual Gibeon Meteorite. All of these and more are available at the KSC space shop.
Is It Kennedy Space Center Or Cape Canaveral?
It is a question that is answered on the tour bus taking you from the visitor center to the launch pads. Although many perceive both names to be equally the same location and that they can be used intermittently, they are in fact 2 distinct locations, completely run separately from each other and they have a completely different purpose as well.
Kennedy Space Center is home to the space shuttle, its crew and all technical aspects of space travel. This is the place you most likely will be visiting during your Orlando vacation. It all started with President Eisenhower who set off the space program back in 1958 with the area that is now known as KSC today. It was President JF Kennedy who ordered the expansion the space program in 1961 and land was purchased on Merritt Island to build and establish what is now called Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In short one could say: the manned exploration of space is home to Kennedy Space Center today; unmanned rockets and air force are located in Cape Canaveral these days.
Fun Fact: our first man in space was … John Glenn. He took off in an Atlas D rocket from Cape Canaveral in 1962.
For more information you can reach the NASA visitor center at 866-737-5235, or visit their website here. Tickets for the Kennedy Space Center are also available at our Official Ticket Center for tickets for all theme parks.
