Space Center
Houston

If you love space, science, and technology, you will love the Houston Space Center! 

The Space Center in Houston is a top-notch science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. It was added as a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014, and it is currently owned by NASA and operates under a contract by the Manned Spaceflight Education Foundation. 

Houston’s Space Center is its #1 attraction for international visitors, and within its 250,000 square feet of museum space it displays over 400 space artifacts and much, much more! 

If you visit the Center, here are a few of the things you might get to experience: 

• The largest collection of moon rocks on display.
• A virtual Martian sunset, and the texture of rocks on the red planet. 
• The NASA Tram Tour, where you will get a behind-the-scenes look at human space exploration. 
• Rocket Park, where one of the three actual Saturn V rockets is displayed. 
• The Mission Control where NASA led the Gemini and Apollo missions, including the first lunar landing. 
• A SpaceX Falcon 9 that actually flew, and is one of only two on display. 
• The Mission Mars Exhibit, where you will discover what it takes to travel to Mars and how humans might live there in the future. 
• Have breakfast with an astronaut and hear amazing stories about space. 
• Take a behind-the-scenes look at NASA Johnson Space Center research.

And that is just the beginning. There are over 400 space artifacts, plus multiple seasonal and traveling exhibits you can come see at the Houston Space Center. It’s a great chance to educate yourself on space, science, and technology, as well as inspire your students or kids to get interested in math and science. 

When you get through the museum, pick up a fun space-related souvenir to take home with you! 

The center also offers various learning programs for students, kids, and any adventurous soul. These include field trips, overnight experiences, conferences, and educators’ resources. 

You might ask, how did this amazing center get started? 

JSC and NASA had a tremendous amount of artifacts and information to share with the world, but no place or resources to share them. So Hal Stall, the director of Public Affairs at JSC began gathering leaders from JSC and the surrounding community and formed the non-profit organization Manned Space Flight Education Foundation Inc. the Foundation set out to create a museum where they could show the world the wonder of space and science. Using experts from Walt Disney, and BRC Imagination Arts, they generated the concepts that would become the Houston Space Center.