Great Short Breaks

If you have ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut, why not visit Kennedy Space Center in central Florida? Just a short drive from Orlando, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers a unique opportunity for you to tour launch areas, meet a veteran astronaut, see actual rockets, train in a spaceflight simulator, or even view an actual rocket or shuttle launch.

If you don't want to drive there are plenty of companies who will pick you up by coach from your hotel, take you to Kennedy and then drop you back – easy.

Allow a whole day at Kennedy as you'll need it. But what is there to do?

The Shuttle Launch Experience provides an exciting journey that allows you to feel what it's like to launch yourself toward space. Strap yourself in and experience the sights, sounds and sensations of a real Space Shuttle launch.

After entering the heart of Space Shuttle operations for a pre-launch briefing. Video screens and atmospheric sound and lighting effects dramatise the moments before your launch.

You can also travel back in time and history with a visit to the NASA Rocket Garden. This brings historic NASA rockets back to life, including the Redstone, Atlas and Titan rockets that first put NASA astronauts in space.

Then return to today's space age and climb aboard the International Space Station. This fascinating attraction gives you an up-close glimpse inside the actual facility where NASA prepares the real components of the International Space Station - the largest, most complex structure ever to be placed into orbit.

In an elevated observation room, you'll see the actual processing bay where each Space Station component is checked out, processed and readied for its trip into orbit.

After the observation room, you can enter a full-scale mock-up of the Habitation Module and see how Space Station crew members live, sleep and work.

In Space Shuttle Plaza, you'll find a full-sized NASA Space Shuttle replica - Explorer. See for yourself how astronauts live and work aboard real Space Shuttles. You'll also find other components needed to launch NASA Space Shuttles such as a huge external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters. Next to the Space Shuttle Explorer is the Launch Status Center, where visitors receive live briefings on NASA's ongoing launch and space flight activity.

The Space Mirror Memorial, designated as a national memorial by Congress and President George Bush and dedicated in 1991, honours the 24 U.S. astronauts who have given their lives for space exploration.

The names of the fallen astronauts from the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as the astronauts from training and commercial airplane accidents are emblazoned on the monument's 42-1/2-foot-high-by-50-foot-wide black granite surface as if to be projected into the heavens.

Make sure you take one of the three guided tours. NASA's launch headquarters traverses an amazing area that includes towering launch pads, huge rockets, history-making technology, and vast stretches of the Florida wildlife preserve. The “Discover KSC: Today & Tomorrow” and “Cape Canaveral: Then & Now tours” are guided by space programme experts and take you deeper into the operations of Kennedy Space Center.

And finally, make sure you take in an IMAX movie. A five-story screen and realistic 3-D special effects, plus dramatic footage shot by NASA astronauts during actual missions will make you feel like you’re floating alongside them.