Space Center Houston

1601 E NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA

Address:	1601 E NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA
Phone:	+1 281-244-2100
Site:	spacecenter.org
Rating:	4.5
Working:	9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 10AM–6PM 10AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

CarvaCoC

Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1Our whole family LOVED this. My husband and I were able to enjoy it as well as both of our kids under 3. Definitely recommend doing this if you are visiting. The timed tour to historic mission control was a little long, but informative. Also the 87 steps up with 2 small children was rough, but we managed. Rocket Park and seeing rockets up close was a neat experience. 1

Riccardo Rossi

The museum is absolutely amazing, but Level 9 tour is a delusion. Im an Italian space enthusiast, and I truly believe that the JSC together with the KSC, are a sort of magical places that must be seen at least once in life. I was so excited to have finally the opportunity to visit the NASA facilities in Houston, and obviously I chose the Level 9 tour to have the best experience possible for a not-insider visitor. It isnt cheap (I have payed also for my wife) but I thought it was worth it. Before talking about the Level9, I want to say that the Space Center museum is absolutely amazing! Tons of unique piece of flown hardware that you cant see in any other place in the world, so if you are in Houston go and visit NASA; go there with your family, your children, your friends. So the reasons of my poor valuation is exclusively for the Level-9 tour. I would like to focus on two things. First: our group cant access the NBL facility due the incoming Harvey hurricane. The weather on Aug 25 2017 morning was still acceptable (the rest of the facilities was opened), so I dont understand why we were not able to get a quick peek of the pool from the balcony. But its ok, we cant control Mother Nature, but next time please tell something to us and above all to the guides BEFORE wasting time to go to the NBL building and find it closed. Second, and most important: our host, David Cisco, spent most of the time to show us several pictures of himself with famous Astronauts or other Space personalities, or he told us many personal stories "I used the Space Shuttle simulator..." "I spoke with XX while he was in orbit..." "I emailed with astronauts on the ISS..." "Im a personal friend of YY...", and in addition to this he promoted his book. Well... With all due respect, who cares? How about to spend that time to show us more stuff? For example the Building 9 is a true gold mine of actual hardware and hi-fidelity models and I wish Id had more time to stay there. I truly disappointed (and sad) of the organization of this tour. I hope to have the opportunity to visit the JSC again... Maybe my experience will be better.

Anthony Alvior

I havent been to JSP since the mid 80s and I was surprised to see how much has changed. Its definitely an improvement over what was. I visited over the July 4th long weekend so I assumed that there would be a crowd, and thanks to other fellow Yelpers I got a lot of good tips for visiting. 1. Get there early! This worked for me as the busy crowd showed up just after lunch time. We also knocked out the busy sites before the crowd got there (Red Tram Tour, Blue Tram Tour, Plane/Shuttle Tour). 2. Book the Tram Tour and the Plane/Shuttle Tour online so that you can skip the lines. Its also free to book your times. 3. Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy under the many trees or in the picnic areas around the outside of the entrance. Get your hand stamped for re-entry into JSP. 4. Skip the Silver Tram Tour that gives you access to Rocket Park, just drive there yourself after youve finished at JSP. Parking is free and you will have much more time to hang around the park versus going with the tour. The interactive stations were informative as were the short films and videos. There are lots of things for kids to do, which are for an extra fee, but for adults, you can keep yourself occupied with all of the things you can do that are already included with your ticket price. I really enjoyed the visit to the historical mission control on the Blue Tram Tour as well as the visit to the building that has mock ups of existing equipment and future equipment. I was pretty impressed with all the changes that have been made since the 80s and its a great place to take visitors from out of town. Its easy to spend the whole day there, so plan carefully and start EARLY!

Randy Roper

The space center itself is great. Very well laid out and very educational. Unfortunately the staff we encountered were terrible. We hurried to catch the tram tour early in the day, dont make this mistake. The tour operators were horrendous. They are younger people who are both uneducated about the subject matter and apathetic about the tour itself. We were told entering the mission control center that it is a working facility, and if we made too much noise we would be asked to leave. Our children were making noise, we excused ourselves before any fuss was made because we didnt want to disturb any of the other guests. We stood in the hall with 2 screaming babies, we ki fly asked the tour operators if we could go downstairs and outside. They said no we had to stay with the tour "while on NASA property." But later as we walked out with the tour guide he led us to the door and told us to go to the tram. Clearly no communication between them. Later in the tour we went to rocket park for our self guided portion. When a tram arrived to take us back we walked leaisurely to the tram and were shouted at by another operator to hurry up if we wanted to make this tram. I was holding my 9 month old and wasnt about to hurry up. So I continued expecting them to simply leave. I was shouted at again, to which I laughed at the irony of a government employee asking me to hurry. After we boarded the tram proceeded to wait for roughly 15 more people and she shouted at them. I worked in customer service for a long time and have high standards so maybe Im wrong in this review.