The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex broke ground on a new attraction for the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
The attraction — Heroes and Legends, featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame — is set to open next year. The current Hall of Fame, established in 1990, is located about seven miles west of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
The new attraction will include a 3-D omnidirectional theater, which is designed to make guests feel as though they are floating in space. Heroes and Legends will also bring to life stories about the earliest of NASA missions, including Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
“As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, and the groundbreaking for Heroes and Legends featuring the new U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, we not only celebrate NASA’s rich history but also look toward the future of space exploration,” Charlie Bolden, NASA administrator, said in a news release. “This attraction promises to bridge the gap between the trailblazers of the past and those who will write the next chapter of space travel.”
Heroes and Legends will be located near the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in a building that currently holds the “Early Space Exploration” and the Debus conference center, Florida Today reported. The location is adjacent to the Rocket Garden, which features rockets such as a 77-foot-tall Juno used to launch NASA’s first satellites and the 109-foot-tall Titan II used for a dozen Gemini missions.
Four were inducted Saturday into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, bringing to total number of inducted astronauts to 91.