You can visit the top NASA sites, but which one should top your 'rocket list'?

Our duelling experts help you decide.

Two Ways to Go

Saturn V at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Picture by Getty Images

By Mal Chenu and Amy Cooper

Updated April 10 2026 - 9:42am, first published 9:00am

In this article

Both Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, are NASA hotspots, but which location should be at the top of your 'rocket list'? Our duelling experts help you decide.

HOUSTON

By Mal Chenu: "Florida may launch the occasional rocket, but Houston is about the trajectory and telemetry, and making sure the missiles don't stray one small step and land in someone's backyard."

Artemis II is scheduled to splash down soon, following a mission which rekindled the romance of space travel, set a new distance record, revealed the far side of the moon and saw astronauts repair a space dunny, so they could resume sitting on their tin can.

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NASA's moonshots were - and again now are - the epitome of human ingenuity and achievement, and a reminder of what America was - and is - at its loftiest. In the 1960s and '70s, the exploration of the final frontier captured the imagination of the entire planet, until we got bored and wanted to know why we hadn't got our hoverboards and flying cars. NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston is where all the drama of the Apollo moonshots played out (if you don't count the strapping tonnes of explosives to your arse and actually going into space). Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral in Florida have similar attractions, but "Merrit Island, we've had a problem," doesn't have the same gravitas.

If you're taking off to the Johnson Space Center, you need to know that your exploration of the complex is, somewhat paradoxically, undertaken on a gentle tram ride. Notwithstanding its relatively limited propulsion, the tram will take you to Historic Mission Control Center, from where the Gemini and Apollo missions, including the lunar landing in 1969, were managed by engineering intellects that defy gravity.

At the Astronaut Training Facility, you'll see the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a massive pool where astronauts simulate ExtraVehicular Activities (aka spacewalks) underwater, and where scientists are developing the next generation of space exploration vehicles.

Rocket Park displays the Saturn V, a 111-metre, three-stage, liquid-fuelled, superheavy-lift launch vehicle that was the backbone of the Apollo program. Having completed its pivotal role, it now lies flat, as if an appreciative voice finally said: "That'll do, Saturn, that'll do." The park is also home to a new Apollo 13 bronze statue depicting the moment "problem" astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise stepped down from the recovery helicopter onto the USS Iwo Jima.

And in case you get triggered by Jim Lovell not looking like Tom Hanks, the immersive cinema at Johnson screens The Moonwalkers, narrated by Tom. Some movie buffs might prefer Kennedy, as Cape Canaveral has been portrayed in film many times, including the classic Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

Florida may launch the occasional rocket, but Houston is about the trajectory and telemetry, and making sure the missiles don't stray one small step and land in someone's backyard.

Next time your partner says they need space, you can tell them where to go. Only Johnson Space Center in Houston has the right stuff. It's not rocket science.

CAPE CANAVERAL

By Amy Cooper: "More than 100 launches a year shoot for the stars from Kennedy Space Center's giant launchpads on Florida's Merritt Island. They're the greatest show on - and off - earth."

Although Mal might insist that Houston does not have a problem, there's only one space odyssey where you'll really have a blast.

Just last week, the Artemis II mission thundered into orbit from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the same hallowed ground from which Apollo 11 blasted off for the first moon landing back in 1969.

Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Picture by Getty Images

More than 100 launches a year shoot for the stars from KSC's giant launchpads on Florida's Merritt Island. They're the greatest show on - and off - earth.

A live liftoff at the home of American spaceflight should top every thrill-seeker's rocket list. From your front-row seat you'll feel the earth move and the skies shudder as you marvel at the mighty power of a 98-metre projectile shooting off a 37-storey launchpad with four million kilos of thrust.

You can't do that in Texas, where everything's much more down to earth. At Mal's Mission Control, nothing launches. There's a Tom Hanks movie and some old computers, both of which you can find right here in my spare room. I'd rather be out of this world on Florida's Space Coast, home of swaggering superheroes who say things like: "The sky is not the limit," (Buzz Aldrin) and "to infinity and beyond," (Buzz Lightyear). Just like space travel itself, KSC's Visitor Complex is big and bold, epic and emotional.

You'll meet superstars like Atlantis, the world's only space shuttle with her own show. After a dramatic cinematic tribute, audiences gasp as a curtain rises to reveal the magnificent machine ready for her close-up, posed as if in full flight.

She's in danger of being upstaged not by Katy Perry but Saturn V, the largest rocket ever flown and history's most powerful engine. The 35-storey-high giant was launch vehicle for the Apollo program's moon landings, blasting off 13 expeditions. Standing underneath her truck-sized engines makes you feel as teeny as a speck of space dust.

And there's the Rocket Garden, where you won't find a rocket salad but nine towering launch vehicles, between them representing the Space Program's historical firepower. They loom under the open sky, still reaching for the stars.

You can spend a day or even two at KSC being awed by the enormity of the cosmos and the ingenuity and bravery it takes to venture out there.

From daily Q&As with NASA astronauts to a grippingly realistic shuttle launch simulation, and bus tours out to Launch Complex 39B itself, where the four-storey Gantry offers prime launch views and interactive installations, there's a galaxy of reasons why KSC has been voted this year's TripAdvisor top-rated US attraction (and third worldwide).

I'm not saying Houston's a waste of space, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see who wins this space race.