NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has announced a new attraction called Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex, scheduled to open in March 2022.
Now under construction, Gateway will provide a look at the present and future of space exploration across 50,000 square feet of immersive displays featuring artefacts and exhibits.
The multi-level attraction will house a spacecraft collection, and visitors will experience what it is like to travel in space through atmospheric effects and a 4D motion theatre.
SpaceX Falcon 9 booster
Highlights include the Orion crew vehicle from NASA’s EFT-1 mission, an engineering model of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew vehicle, and the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster (Booster 1023).
The exhibit will also include a replica of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser, and scale models of NASA’s Space Launch System and ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy.
Gateway’s ‘Robotic Trail Blazers Wall’ will offer interactive displays that investigate probes and satellites in space. The HoloTube presentation station allows guests to manipulate holographic imagery while learning about the James Webb Space Telescope.
Inspired by a galactic spaceport, Spaceport KSC is an immersive area that features a 4D flying theatre attraction with four journeys – Cosmic Wonders, Daring Explorers, Red Planet, and Uncharted Worlds.
Gateway opens in March 2022
Gateway’s rooftop is described as an adaptable space for viewing launches and landings. It will also feature a Planewave CDK20 telescope, with guests able to observe objects in the sky.
Elsewhere, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. is closing for six months in 2022 to install new galleries. The institution previously received a £200m donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In July, Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin completed its first space tourism flight on the New Shepard spacecraft, a reusable suborbital rocket system designed to take astronauts past the Kármán line.
