The Kennedy Space Center and Florida's Space Coast

Just to the east of Orlando, an island stands out from the Florida coastline: Merritt Island, with a very special destiny. Falling behind the USSR in the space race at the height of the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy launched the Apollo space programme at great expense. The goal: the Moon!

For the purposes of the mission, a large NASA launch centre was built on Merritt Island in 1959, which later became the Kennedy Space Center. Across the Banana River, the site adjoined the military-run Cape Canaveral site. This was enough to earn the area the nickname Space Coast!

Facing the Atlantic, towards which the rockets are launched to avoid disaster in the event of failure, the Kennedy Space Center launch pads have sent a number of landmark missions into space, the most memorable of which took place on 16 July 1969.

Aboard the Saturn V, a rocket of impressive dimensions, and watched by thousands of live spectators and television viewers, the Apollo 11 mission took off into space. Some time later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon!

On Merritt Island, the Kennedy Space Center is far from being the only site to discover. To protect the base, two large natural areas have been preserved and cover the north of the island: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, with its hiking trails and kayak outings, and Canaveral National Seashore, a long strip of sand preserved from construction, where turtles like to lay their eggs...

Further south, Cocoa Beach is a young and festive seaside resort, known in particular for its surf spots.

Open to the public, the Kennedy Space Center offers a fascinating and comprehensive exhibition that will interest even the most reluctant visitors to the stories of rockets and walking on the Moon. The entire tour is highly interactive, with simulations, 4D films, guided sequences, etc.

It all starts at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. It is organised into Mission Zones, grouping attractions in chronological order, from the very beginnings of space exploration to its future, with a focus on Mars.

In the Heroes and Legends zone, the Rocket Garden is a real eye-catcher, with its open-air reproductions of rockets and other spacecraft. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame provides an insight into astronauts of the past and their lives, while a memorial pays tribute to those who did not survive their missions.

Twice a day, for an additional fee, you can even take part in aChat with an Astronaut session with a live NASA astronaut!

Another not-to-be-missed 'mission zone' is the exhibition of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, a space shuttle that has flown into space countless times: the hull bears the markings! Then it's on to the real thing with the Kennedy Space Center Tour Bus, a guided bus tour of the base's facilities, including the 110-metre-high (!) 39B launch complex and the giganticVehicle Assembly Building.

With so many well-executed attractions, it's easy to spend a day visiting the Kennedy Space Center.