Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
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| Slogan | A Day of Fun, A Lifetime of Inspiration |
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| Location | Merritt Island, Florida |
| Coordinates | 28°31′24″N 80°40′55″W / 28.5233°N 80.6819°WCoordinates: 28°31′24″N 80°40′55″W / 28.5233°N 80.6819°W |
| Theme | NASA and space exploration |
| Owner | NASA |
| Operated by | Delaware North Companies |
| Opened | August 1, 1967 |
| Previous names | Spaceport USA |
| Operating season | open year-round |
| Visitors per annum | 1.5 million |
| Rides | |
| Total | shuttle launch experience |
| Website | kennedyspacecenter.com |
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, a range of bus tours of the spaceport, and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. It also encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center and United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. There were 1.5 million visitors in 2009 and it had some 700 employees.
The complex had its beginning in the 1960s in a small trailer containing simple displays on card tables. By 1964, more than 250,000 self-guided car tours, permitted between 1 and 4 p.m. ET on Sundays at the urging of U.S. Rep. Olin Teague of Texas, were seen at KSC. In 1965, KSC Director Kurt H. Debus was authorized to spend $2 million on a full-scale visitors center. Spaceport USA, as it was soon titled, hosted 500,000 visitors in 1967, its first year, and one million by 1969. Even during the gap between the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, attendance remained at over one million guests and it ranked as the fifth most popular tourist attraction in Florida.
When nearby Walt Disney World opened in 1971, visitors center attendance increased by 30 percent, but the public was often disappointed by the comparative lack of polish at KSC's tourist facilities. Existing displays were largely made up of trade show exhibits donated by NASA contractors. Later that year, a $2.3 million upgrade of the visitor complex was begun with added focus on the benefits of space exploration along with the existing focus on human space exploration.
In 1995, Delaware North Companies was selected to operate the visitor center. Since then, the facility has been entirely self-supporting and receives no taxpayer or government funding. NASA renewed the contract with Delaware North Companies through May 2020 with options to extend the contract through 2030.
Included in the base admission is tour-bus transportation to an observation platform at Launch Complex 39, which provides unobstructed views of both launch pads and the surrounding KSC property, and the Apollo/Saturn V Center. It also includes admission to the Astronaut Hall of Fame, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west.
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