Kennedy Space Center - Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit (2019)

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, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. "Space Shuttle Atlantis" is home to the real Space Shuttle Atlantis orbiter and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. The center also provides astronaut training experiences, including a multi-axial chair and Mars Base simulator. The visitor complex also has daily presentations from a veteran NASA astronaut. A bus tour, included with admission, encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center. There were 1.7 million visitors to the visitor complex in 2016.

In 2010, the center announced a $100 million plan to house a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in a 10-story 64,000 square feet (5,900 m2) facility. On April 12, 2011, the 30th anniversary of the launch of STS-1, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Atlantis would be provided to the visitors center for display after its last flight on STS-135 and subsequent decommissioning. The exhibit officially opened on June 29, 2013, offering a nearly 360-degree view of the shuttle. Atlantis is positioned at a 43.21 degrees angle with the payload bay doors open; a view only previously seen in space.

The exhibit also includes a life sized replica of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Shuttle program's astrovan, Dr. Maxime Faget’s Shuttle prototype from 1969, a large-scale slide mimicking the 22 degree slope of a Space Shuttle when landing, numerous astronaut training and Shuttle simulators, and other displays about life in space. On the ground level is the "Forever Remembered" exhibit, commemorating the 14 astronauts lost in both Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia disasters. Forever Remembered includes personal artifacts from the astronauts, two recovered pieces of the Shuttles, footage of the physical and emotional recovery, and the return to flight.

The John F Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center) is one of ten National Aeronautics and Space Administration field centers. Since December 1968, Kennedy Space Center has been NASA's primary launch center of human spaceflight. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The management of the two entities work very closely together, share resources, and even own facilities on each other's property.

Though the first Apollo flights, and all Project Mercury and Project Gemini flights took off from CCAFS, the launches were managed by KSC and its previous organization, the Launch Operations Directorate. Starting with the fourth Gemini mission, the NASA launch control center in Florida (Mercury Control Center, later the Launch Control Center) began handing off control of the vehicle to the Mission Control Center shortly after liftoff; in prior missions it held control throughout the entire mission.

Additionally, the center manages launch of robotic and commercial crew missions and researches food production and In-Situ Resource Utilization for off-Earth exploration. Since 2010, the center has worked to become a multi-user spaceport through industry partnerships, even adding a new launch pad (LC-39C) in 2015.

There are about 700 facilities and buildings grouped across the center's 144,000 acres (580 km2). Among the unique facilities at KSC are the 525-foot (160 m) tall Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking NASA's largest rockets, the Launch Control Center, which conducts space launches at KSC, the Operations and Checkout Building, which houses the astronauts dormitories and suit-up area, a Space Station factory, and a 3-mile (4.8 km) long Shuttle Landing Facility. There is also a Visitor Complex open to the public on site.