Visiting the Stennis Space Center

Stennis Space Center is located at Stennis Space Center, MS.

StenniSphere, Stennis Space Center's award winning visitors center, offers exciting new exhibits and stage shows. Travel to the Red Planet! Land the Space Shuttle! Go aboard the International Space Station!

StenniSphere makes every effort to accommodate individuals or groups with disabilities or special needs. Please contact StenniSphere prior to your visit to facilitate arrangements for any special assistance you may require.

For more information, call 1-800-237-1821 (Option 1) in Mississippi or Louisiana or call (228) 688-2370.

Tours of StenniSphere depart from the Launch Pad at the Hancock County Welcome Center west of Bay St. Louis, Miss., on I-10 at Exit 2– just 48 miles west of Biloxi and 45 miles east of New Orleans.

Walk beneath an Apollo-era Lunar Lander and view exhibits and videos in the Launch Pad before boarding a shuttle bus to StenniSphere.

From the Launch Pad board a shuttle for a 25-minute narrated tour through the 125,000-acre acoustical buffer zone to America's largest rocket test complex where Space Shuttle Main Engines are tested!

Every astronaut rides on engines tested at Stennis Space Center.

Next Stop: StenniSphere

Featuring 14,000 square feet of exciting displays:

• Real rocket engines and scale models of spacecraft
• Exhibits on NASA's mission and spacecraft for the 21st century
• A Navy exhibit that lets you forecast the weather in your hometown or take a walk under the sea
• Unique presentations designed to educate and entertain
• Exhibits on caring for the Gulf of Mexico
• RocKeTeria Diner, Odyssey Gift Shop and Motion Simulator

StenniSphere’s outdoor exhibits give visitors the rare opportunity to see real rocket engines used in America’s space program. See a Space Shuttle Main Engine used to get the shuttle into orbit! Get close up to a J2 engine used on the second stage of the Saturn V rocket! Touch a real F1 engine, designed as a booster engine for the first stage of the Saturn V vehicle for the Apollo program! See a model of the Saturn V rocket! Walk up to a real Learjet, used in NASA’s remote sensing program! More!

StenniSphere’s Swamp to Space exhibit pays tribute to the history of the land Stennis Space Center now occupies and to the families who made way for America’s journey into space. Learn about the ecology of coastal Mississippi and Stennis’ commitment to preserving the environment.

Be A Rocket Scientist

In StenniSphere's Test Control Center, you become a rocket test conductor and test fire a Space Shuttle Main Engine. Launch a rocket and view an engine test through a periscope just like the scientists do at Stennis Space Center! Check out a hands-on exhibit of Space Shuttle engine parts that have actually flown in space.

The Meaning of NASA Missions:
A Patch Display

Hand-stitched patches created by members of the American Needlepoint Guild to commemorate NASA's human space flight missions. Guild members devoted in excess of 4,000 combined hours stitching these patches.

Land the Space Shuttle! Try your hand at landing a Space Shuttle! You’re in the pilot’s seat in a replica of the Space Shuttle cockpit. Observe your fellow crew members at work in the payload bay.

The International Space Station exhibit demonstrates how astronauts live and work in space. Try your hand in the glove box and see how astronauts sleep. This exhibit is a scale replica of a module on the real International Space Station. See the International Space Station from your hometown as it orbits overhead.

Step back in time at this exhibit that contains the personal belongings of Dr. Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist whose vision took Americans to the Moon. Also included are the design renderings of the late James H. Deese, a planning engineer who designed the launch facilities still used at Kennedy Space Center today. The exhibit, which recreates a living room and office scene from the 1960s, illustrates how the technology has advanced because of the space program, drastically changing our lives for the better.

Von Braun's belongings are displayed courtesy of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., and James Deese's artifacts are courtesy of his son, Dr. Lawrence Deese, M.D., of Long Beach, Miss.

The Martians Have Landed!
Take a stroll through One Main Street Mars, a futuristic replica of what a home on the Red Planet might be like. Take a ride to Mars on the motion simulator! See the new live stage show that entertains as it educates. Shows are twice daily, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

From Our Space to Yours
NASA technology has brought us things like invisible braces and a special camera that sees invisible hydrogen flames. Learn how NASA is helping improve our lives in this exhibit, which offers a hands-on review of the benefits derived from human exploration and development of space.

Visitors should bring a photo I.D. to register and board a shuttle to StenniSphere.

Here is a map to Stennis Space Center.

OPEN DAILY 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Memorial Day Weekend - Labor Day Weekend

Winter Hours
9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday,
Closed Sundays
Closed Major Holidays.
Tours depart every 15 minutes.
Free Admission