Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex serves as the public gateway to NASA’s launch center on Merritt Island, combining museum exhibits, theaters, simulations, historic spacecraft, and bus tours into the working spaceport. Public visits began in 1963 as simple self-guided tours through Cape Canaveral, then grew rapidly during the Mercury and Apollo years into one of Florida’s leading attractions. Today the complex includes the Apollo/Saturn V Center, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Heroes & Legends, the Rocket Garden, and memorials to fallen astronauts. Since Delaware North assumed operations in 1995, the site has expanded major attractions and infrastructure while operating without taxpayer or government funding.