Things to Do at the Kennedy Space Center This Spring

Families Can Enjoy the Top Five Things to do at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex During Spring Break

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (March 20, 2013) – KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is offering an out-of-this-world Spring Break experience for guests, including the top five things for kids to do during the spring holiday:

1. Play Angry Birds Space – Angry Birds™ Space Encounter, opening March 22, is the first comprehensive, interactive Angry Birds attraction in the United States. Angry Birds Space Encounter brings to life the space adventures of the Angry Birds as they follow their kidnapped eggs into an inter-galactic wormhole. Along the way, the birds gear up with heroic superpowers as they come face-to-face with Space Pigs.

At the new Visitor Complex attraction, guests enter the encounter through a vortex of images and sounds from Angry Birds Space, creating the illusion of being inside the wormhole that transports the Angry Birds into a strange space universe. After emerging from the wormhole, visitors encounter six interactive stations designed to engage and immerse guests in a new dimension of Angry Birds Space. Angry Birds Space Encounter is included in regular admission to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

2. A Week Of Space – Spring Camp Kennedy Space Center (KSC) provides young people ages 8 to 14 with an inspiring week of fun and enriching space activities. The camp, themed “Out of This World Science,” will be held March 25-29 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

During spring Camp KSC, young people explore the wonders of living in space, experiment with unusual chemical reactions, and train like an astronaut by engaging in space shuttle mission simulations. Camp KSC participants also receive behind-the-scenes access to Kennedy Space Center launch facilities, providing them with a first-hand view of the everyday challenges faced by astronauts. Camp KSC is $295 plus tax. The fee includes lunches, snacks, Camp KSC T-shirt and a Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Annual Pass. Sign up at http://kennedyspacecenter.com or call 866-737-5235 for information.

3. Go Behind The Scenes – KSC Up-Close Tours allow visitors to share mankind’s greatest achievements and future of the space program with the entire family and receive rare behind-the-scenes access to areas of Kennedy Space Center that have been off limits to the public for decades. The KSC Up-Close Tour series includes tours of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), Launch Control Center (LCC), and Launch Pad. The VAB tour has been extended through 2013, and the LCC and Launch Pad tours are confirmed through June 30.

Open to the public for the first time in more than 30 years, the VAB Tour provides visitors a look inside the 525-foot-tall structure – one of the largest buildings in the world – where the Apollo rockets and space shuttles were assembled and where the Space Launch System, NASA’s space exploration vehicle of the future, will be assembled. The Launch Control Center Tour allows guests inside the Firing Room, where NASA directors and engineers supervised all of the launches for the space shuttle and Apollo programs. For the first time in the 50-year history of Kennedy Space Center, the Launch Pad Tour takes visitors to one of the launch pads from which the space shuttles and Saturn V moon rockets were launched. All Up-Close Tours are $25 per adult and $19 per child (ages 3-11) plus tax, in addition to admission.

4. Launch Like An Astronaut – Shuttle Launch Experience at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is an incredible journey of vertically launching into space and orbiting Earth aboard the space shuttle. Guest “crew members” strap in for this all-too-real simulation, which immerses visitors in the sights, sounds and feelings of a space shuttle launch, designed under the guidance of NASA and veteran space shuttle astronauts.  The five minute experience in the one-of-a-kind, custom-designed crew cabin culminates with a breath-taking view of Earth from space.

5. Meet An Astronaut – Astronaut Encounter provides guests with the rare opportunity to meet veteran astronauts from NASA’s famous Astronaut Corps. The daily Astronaut Encounter briefings allow plenty of time for discussion. During spring break, Astronaut Encounter participants are space shuttle astronaut Winston Scott, March 23-24; space shuttle astronaut Bob Springer, March 25; and space shuttle astronaut Jerry Ross, March 26-31.

The Visitor Complex will also celebrate the grand opening of the new $100 million home of Space Shuttle Atlantis June 29.