"See Your Spaceport": Tourism at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the Age of Apollo

Today we take for granted our ability to tour NASA's launch pads and Mission Control Center, but in the early 1960s, NASA centers operated much like - and were often physically adjacent to - secure military installations. For reasons of national security, the centers restricted access to official visitors only, yet thousands of curious tourists spontaneously appeared at the gates. How and why did the American public come to have a presence at the Kennedy Space Center? How did tourism become a key strategy for selling Project Apollo to a nation ambivalent about the value of the lunar landing program? This webinar will explore these questions and discuss resources to help instructors bring space history into the classroom.