KSC Explore Tour at Kennedy Space Center Review
*We were provided with this experience for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my own.
When we visited Florida in the summer, for the third time, we wanted to go back to Kennedy Space Center. It’s one of our favourite places in Florida and such a fantastic day out. However, we wanted to make the day a little different and so booked to go on the KSC Explore Tour.
This post is just about the KSC Explore Tour. If you want to know more about the rest of Kennedy Space Center and the vast number of attractions and experiences that there are on the site, these articles will help:
What is the KSC Explore Tour?
The KSC Explore Tour is a bus tour of Kennedy Space Center. The KSC Explore Tour makes several stops to capture once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities and tells you more information and trivia about everything that you see across the space center.
The tour gives you the opportunity to get closer to many spaceflight icons like the Vehicle Assembly Building and NASA Press Site, where you can disembark to capture photos, while travelling to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
How does the KSC Explore Tour change your Kennedy Space Center experience?
Any visit to Kennedy Space Center isn’t complete without going on the Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour. The standard tour takes you to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, through the KSC site, and has videos to watch along the way.
This standard tour is just a 15 minute drive to the Apollo/Saturn V Center and is really just an informative mode of transport. The KSC Explore Tour is an alternative to the standard bus tour – so you don’t have to do both – and takes just short of an hour.
The KSC Explore Tour
The KSC Explore Tour has a lot of different time slots available throughout the day and we were booked on one at 11am, which gave us time to travel across Florida to the centre without rushing in the morning.
You have to get to the bus terminal around 15 minutes before the tour departs and there’s a comfy seating area to wait. You’re then picked up by your friendly guide who shows you to the bus and introduces you to the driver.
The tour is nice and personal. It’s great to have a real space expert pointing out sights around the KSC site and giving tidbits of information wherever you go. The buses are nice and comfortable and there are TVs showing clips at various points too.
The bus trip took us past some of the KSC launch sites and made our first stop was at the Complex 39 Press Site, near the VAB – Vehicle Assembly Building – which is one of our favourite parts of a day at Kennedy Space Center. The building is huge. So much bigger than photos show. It is one of the largest buildings in the world by area and covers eight acres. It’s vast.
The tour let us get closer than we had ever been to it before. We were able to get out of the bus, take photos and ask questions before heading back on board to continue the tour. From here we were also able to view all the cabins where press can work whilst watching launches and launch preparations.
The tour took us past Launch Pad 39A, currently being used by SpaceX. It’s the same launch pad that Apollo 11 launched from which we got to see from the window of the bus. It felt like being up close to history – as well as seeing Space X making new history as we speak.
The tour then took us to an observation area overlooking launch pads 29A and 39B. You could see for miles from here – and just how green the area around Kennedy Space Center is! There are lots of information board celebrating the Apollo Program and Space Shuttle Program, with every launch emblem shown. It really does put into perspective how much NASA have accomplished, even from just two launch sites.
Back on the bus we drove right past Launch Pad 39B, where the launch of Space Shuttle Challenger ended in disaster in 1986. We have learnt so much about the space program through our trips to KSC and the KSC Explore Tour really did bring so much of that history to life.
One of the last stops on the KSC Explore Tour was even closer to the Vehicle Assembly Building! We’ll never tire of seeing the VAB up close. There were also stars and stripes on the floor to show you just how big the VAB is as they’re pretty much the same size as the ones on the side of the building.
This location also has an Escape Bunker on Tracks to learn about and see as well as a mockup of the Orion spacecraft. The Explore Tour is the only way to see things like this, and we loved it.
But, the most exciting part of this stop was getting to walk along the gantry that NASA astronauts walked across to board the space shuttles. It was epic and something we will always talk about.
There was so much more that we saw during the tour as we drove by – the crawler vehicle used to move rockets and space shuttles to the launch pads, the Operations and Checkout buildings where astronauts stay before a flight and the observation gantry which was being renovated when we visited.
The tour finished at the Apollo/Saturn V building where the standard tour also finishes. This building is incredible – you get to experience recreation of the Apollo 8 launch from the control room, see a Saturn V rocket, touch a piece of the moon and so much more before getting on another bus and heading back to the main Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex where you can see Space Shuttle Atlantis, enjoy a shuttle launch experience and many more exhibits.
We absolutely loved the KSC Explore Tour and it added so much to our KSC experience. Having already been to KSC twice before, it added so much more to the day and we are all so glad we did it.
The KSC Explore Tour is an extra chunk of time and even without doing the tour there really isn’t enough time in a day to experience everything at Kennedy Space Center. Because of this we love the KSC itineraries that help you see all the most important parts depending on who you’re visiting with.
After this trip we said that next time we’d want two days at KSC to really experience it all – and they even offer two day tickets especially for this reason! We’re now looking to do one of their other Special Interest Tours on our next visit – it would be great to be shown around the complex by a real life astronaut!
This Kennedy Space Center Tour currently costs just $25 for adults and $15 for children (before tax) which felt like an absolute bargain. It’s great value – but you do need Kennedy Space Center admission tickets as well.
You can find out more about Kennedy Space Center over on their website.
If you’re looking for more inspiration of things to do in Florida these articles might help:
- Our top tips for Planning an Orlando Holiday
- Our guide to Florida holidays
- The Best Indoor Activities in Orlando Florida
- Relaxing Things to do in Orlando
- Our 21 Day Orlando Itinerary
- Our 2 Week Orlando Itinerary
Donna: I’ve got two tickets for the Explore Tour starting at 10 a.m. If we get to the Kennedy Space Center first thing in the morning when it opens, how do we get to the area to wait for our 10 a.m. Explore bus? I’m sure there are signs, but I don’t want to get lost or get in the regular bus line.
It’s really well signposted. You go through the main gates and pretty much right in front of you is the Rocket Garden – huge rockets that you can walk around. To the right of that is a path that goes to the Bus Tours entrance – it’s a big arch type entrance you walk through and hard to miss. The staff there will make sure you’re in the right line for the bus tour that you’re booked on. It’s literally a two minute walk from the entrance to where the bus tours start as long as you don’t get distracted by rockets, rovers and everything else! Have that best time!