Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Entry Tickets

Yes, with planning. Young children engage strongly with the interactive simulators, Rocket Garden, and the scale of the Saturn V. Planet Play, an indoor play area for young children, is included with admission. The Shuttle Launch Experience simulator may be too intense for very young children. The pre-show film before Space Shuttle Atlantis contains emotional content about the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Comfortable shoes and sun protection are essential for the outdoor walking distances.

General admission includes Space Shuttle Atlantis and its 60-plus interactive exhibits, the Apollo/Saturn V Center with a genuine 363-foot Saturn V rocket, the Rocket Garden with flight-flown rockets, Heroes and Legends with the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, the Shuttle Launch Experience simulator, the Gantry at LC-39, daily IMAX films, live shows and presentations, the daily Astronaut Encounter, and the NASA Bus Tour to restricted spaceport areas. Parking is not included in admission.

The Visitor Complex strongly recommends a minimum of one full day and offers a two-day ticket for those wanting to see everything. A full single day from opening to closing allows comfortable coverage of the major attractions including the NASA Bus Tour, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Apollo/Saturn V Center, Rocket Garden, and Shuttle Launch Experience. The NASA Bus Tour alone requires approximately two hours and should be joined as early in the day as possible.

No. Standard admission tickets are not valid on days when a rocket launch is scheduled. Launch-day tickets must be purchased directly from Kennedy Space Center at kennedyspacecenter.com and are available in limited quantities. Verifying the launch schedule for your planned visit dates before purchasing tickets is strongly recommended. The Visitor Complex may restrict certain areas to general visitors during launch operations.

The NASA Bus Tour is a guided journey through restricted areas of the active Kennedy Space Center spaceport, including drive-by views of launch facilities, historic Apollo launch pads, and the Vehicle Assembly Building. The tour concludes at the Apollo/Saturn V Center with a genuine Saturn V rocket. The bus tour is included with admission and departs regularly throughout the day. Joining early is strongly recommended as it takes approximately two hours.

The Gantry at LC-39 is a newly expanded experience at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, opened in 2026. Accessible as part of the NASA Bus Tour, it features four floors of interactive experiences, historic artifacts, an immersive Earth Information Center, outdoor play areas, and premier launch viewing from the actual launch complex at Launch Complex 39. This is the same launch complex from which Apollo missions departed and from which Space Shuttle launches were conducted. The gantry provides the closest publicly accessible view of the active launch infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is displayed at 43 degrees, the angle at which it would appear from the perspective of an observer watching it deploy in Earth's orbit, with payload bay doors open and the Canadarm extended. Atlantis flew 33 missions including deploying the Hubble Space Telescope. More than 60 interactive simulators and exhibits surround the orbiter. The pre-show film before entering is considered an essential part of the experience.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is on Merritt Island, approximately 57 miles east of Orlando on the Space Coast. The drive from Orlando's International Drive corridor takes approximately 50 minutes to one hour. There is no direct public transit. A car or rideshare is the most practical option. Several tour operators offer round-trip bus transportation from Orlando hotels.