I really really wanted to love this place.

It has been on my list of top places to visit for a while. I was expecting much more of a museum feel, but instead found it to be much more like an amusement park. Long lines, long wait times, loads of kids, very noisy, over priced bland food, uninspiring public speakers, and young inexperienced staff.

I did get the audio tour device which I would highly recommend.

Despite the fact that the center is laid out in a totally nonsensical design and that only one of the four main exhibit areas feels thorough and complete. Fortunately this section, the Starship Gallery felt like what I wanted the entire experience to be. Guided audio tour on a per display basis, with in-depth information from the people who used or created it. Amazing replicas and models, great lighting, and some truly amazing stories and inspiration. However, this section, which takes about an hour to get through was the only one I would really recommend to an adult.

With so many movie theaters, it feels like watching a lot of YouTube videos, for far more money.

The tram tour (I took the blue, to see Mission Control) was about 40 minutes longer than it needed to be, and after an hour wait-in line was a huge let down. To be fair, seeing the Mission Control room (or one of them) was really neat, and standing next to the Saturn V rocket was an amazing bit of perspective, but the amount of time spent herding people, the noise of the group, the PR friendly "talk" from the NASA guide all felt too generalized and simple. I can read about all of this online, if I come to the MUSEUM I want to see and hear things that are unique and more in-depth and practical than I can get elsewhere.

I was thinking how difficult it must be to try and populate this place with content, when so much of what makes it great was 40+ years ago.

I would have loved to see an entire section dedicated to the Space Shuttle and all the amazing things it and her crews accomplished, but instead it was relegated to a montage I saw in one of the videos.

There is a section about the ISS and is intended to be a "live look" at what is going on there, but the lady giving the lecture was so bland, and hard to listen to, not to mention that all her information was largely homogenized and generic, lacking any real "live" details, that I felt like I was wasting my time just listening to her.

I wish I could say this is an amazing, wonderful, fun, and unique, one-of-a-kind, must-see sort of places, but it's not. It might be fun for kids, and that's great, but I am the one who pays taxes and funds NASA, so I want to be blown away.

If you do go, hit the Starship Gallery, spend plenty of time there, listen to every audio recording, and enjoy it. It's really really great.

Everything else? Time permitting...

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Space Center Houston - Clear Lake - Houston, TX - Yelp