Kennedy Space Center is a world famous rocket launch site located in Florida. It is only an hour East of Orlando. Many of the famous space missions were launched from the launch pad near Kennedy Space Center. The Kennedy Space Center has a visitor complex that allows tourists to visit all the past and present projects. This includes the real Apollo Saturn V rocket and Space Shuttle Atlantis. The visitor complex also offers various activity for educational purpose and provide inspirations to people.
The admission ticket for Kennedy Space Center has to be purchased online. The general admission ticket already includes most of the activities other than meeting the real astronauts. We got to Kennedy Space Center visitor complex by around 8:50AM. It is about 10 minutes before it opens. One thing surprised us was that the parking fee was another $15. At the entrance, there was a huge countdown clock counting down.
As we entered the complex, the first thing we came across was the Rocket Garden. The Rocket Garden had rockets from the past, including the first generation of space rockets made by US. Some rockets were rather large. At the back of the Rocket Garden, there was a mock up of Saturn V rockets laying down horizontally. Initially we thought it was a real one, but it wasn't.
We then went to Journey to Mars center. There was presentation every 30 minutes going over the plan to occupy Mars. Coincidentally, we were wearing the SpaceX Occupy Mars T-Shirt that day. In this building, there were simulators that we could operate to dock spaceship onto the International Space Station. It was harder than we thought. One little movement could cause the spaceship to drift.
Afterwards, we went to Apollo Saturn V center. To get to Apollo Saturn V center, we had to take the bus that leaves every 15 minutes. We were really lucky to catch the bus right away. On the bus ride, we could see the NASA rocket manufacturing site on the far side. One we arrived at Apollo Saturn V center, there was presentation on all the Apollo Missions. The mission controls in the auditorium were the real ones used back in the days. After the presentation, we headed towards the huge room that has the real Saturn V rocket. The rocket was huge and it looked amazingly complex. Other than the rocket, there were also various other items such as the space capsule used to land on the moon and the pen that can be used in space. At the outside of Apollo Saturn V center, there was a viewing area where we could see the launch pad complex on the far side. We could see LC39 used by SpaceX but unfortunately there was no launch on that day.
After we got back to the visitor complex, we went to Atlantis Pavillion. This is where Space Shuttle Atlantis resides. We were very excited about this. Once we entered, we watched the video presenting the history of Space Shuttle. It was quite inspiring. After the video, we saw Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was an engineering marvel and beautiful. It was smaller than we thought however. At the pavilion, there were also simulators for landing the Space Shuttle. We then went for the Space Shuttle launch experience. It was quite fun. After getting out of the launch experience simulator, there was a ramp that we could use to slide down. This was the exact same type of ramp slide used by Space Shuttle.
At the back side of the visitor complex, there was a monument that honors the astronauts that passed away during space mission.
Overall, it was a great experience at Kennedy Space Center and it was quite inspirational. It is a great place for kids to visit and inspire them.
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