Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Rocket Garden is located inside the front entrance, beyond Heroes & Legends. It is an outdoor display of historic rockets that put Americans and satellites in space. Visitors can walk up to and around the base of the rockets. All of the rockets in the garden are legitimate rockets with the exception of the Mercury-Atlas, which is a re-creation replica. The Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, and Titan II rockets launched astronauts and the Juno I, Juno II, Thor-Delta, and Atlas-Agena rockets launched satellites from Cape Canaveral. These are mounted upright whereas the largest rocket, a Saturn IB, is mounted on its side. Saturn IB rockets launched Apollo Command/Service Modules into Earth orbit for Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. The Saturn IB on display is SA-209 which was designated for a possible Skylab Rescue mission. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. The center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast, due east of Orlando. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit is home to the real Space Shuttle 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.—kennedyspacecenter.com & Wikipedia
Located near the Rocket Garden, the International Space Station mural overlooks the plaza at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. The ISS program is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 250 mi by means of reboost maneuvers using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. The center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast, due east of Orlando. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit is home to the real Space Shuttle 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.—kennedyspacecenter.com & Wikipedia
