Adult visitors to the tourist facility near KSC will pay $38 each to enter the complex, which includes bus tours, the IMAX movies, and the new Shuttle attraction. As NASA moves out of the era of the Shuttle and into the age of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, or Orion capsule, this ride may be a lasting tribute to what was.

Astronaut Charlie Bolden hosts the attraction and explains, in excruciating detail, how the Shuttle works. That includes the inherent problems with the Solid Rocket Boosters, how the astronauts throttle the engines back to avoid having the thick part of the atmosphere damage the spacecraft, and that first orbit of the Earth feels as crews experience the crush of gravity at three times the normal force, just before weightlessness sets in.

Aside from the "Apollo 13" motion picture, I don’t know of a single prominent example of what it would have been like to be on an Apollo launch. Kids in our day and age too young to remember what a Shuttle looked or felt like, can get an inkling by riding the Shuttle Launch Experience, assuming it’s worth $38 to them to know.

I’ve included a link to the NPR story on the attraction.