A young boy wears an astronaut costume next to a woman waving a flag as they watch a live broadcast of the return of the Artemis II crew members to Earth at the San Diego Air and Space Museum during a watch party for the crew’s splash down in the Pacific Ocean, in San Diego, California, on April 10, 2026. The NASA spacecraft carrying four astronauts splashed down as planned Friday off the California coast, capping the US space agency’s successful crewed test mission around the Moon, the first such flyby in more than 50 years. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Interest in space travel is rising. The Artemis II Moon flight captured America’s attention, with astronauts setting a human distance record of 252,756 miles from Earth. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has flown more than 650 missions, is slated for an IPO that may bring in $175 billion.
According to travel experts at Iglu Cruise, Google search interest for “space tourism” surged by 4,900% in 2026 compared with 2025.
While space tourism has yet to lift off, the U.S. boasts a number of destinations that offer the excitement of aviation and space.
Iglu determined which air and space attractions had the highest percentage of five-star reviews. And you will not need a spaceship or even a passport to visit.
Chantilly, Virginia, USA – February 19, 2024: View of the cockpit of the “Enola Gay” B-29 Superfortress airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on display at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
gettySteven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
5 Star Reviews: 85%
The Udvar-Hazy Center is a large museum near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, VA. It displays aircraft and spacecraft too large for its companion facility, The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The Udvar-Hazy Center contains the Space Shuttle Discovery, the record-breaking SR-71 Blackbird Air Force reconnaissance jet, and new exhibits featuring the James Webb Telescope and Parker Solar Probe. Other exhibits include the B-29 Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and an Air France Concorde supersonic passenger jet.
Visitors can watch aircraft preservation experts at work. There are also simulators, an IMAX theater, and a Shake Shack. Best of all admission is free, although there is a charge for parking.
The museum is named after Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, who donated $65 million in 2000. Udvar-Hazy, 80, a Hungarian immigrant, was a pioneer in commercial aviation, credited with developing the airplane leasing industry. Today more than 58% of commercial airliners are leased by airlines rather than owned.
A NASA Perseverance Mars rover view of the landscape and the rover’s route while they have been exploring the Jezero Crater at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, in Pasadena, California on Monday November 25, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
5 Star Reviews: 79%
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, is the center of NASA’s robotic missions into space. JPL is where experts develop and build the rovers, explorers and satellites that explore space, the Moon, other planets and eventually, the stars.
Visitors can see Mission Control, where teams watch every Mars landing live, and the sterile labs where the next generation of spacecraft are being built.
The JPL Public Services Office offers a limited number of onsite, in-person tours free of charge, for groups and individuals on an advanced reservation basis. Visitor parking is also free.
Tours include a multimedia presentation on JPL entitled “Journey to the Planets and Beyond,” an overview of the Laboratory’s activities and accomplishments. Guests can also visit the Space Flight Operations Facility, and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.
Tours are popular and must be booked a minimum of three weeks in advance. There are no tours on weekends or holidays.
The Gemini, United Kingdom Infrared and UH Telescopes at the Mauna Kea Observatories on the Big Island of Hawaii
Moment Editorial/Getty ImagesMauna Kea Observatories
5 Star Reviews: 78%
If your travels take you to the Big Island of Hawaii, visiting the Mauna Kea Observatories will take you closer to the stars. The Mauna Kea Observatories are a group of massive telescopes located at the summit of a dormant volcano.
Sitting 14,000 feet above sea level, this site offers some of the clearest views of the universe, allowing scientists to study distant galaxies and the birth of stars. At the visitor’s center at the 9000-foot level, there are exhibits and ranger talks on educational displays on Hawaiian cultural history and local astronomy.
Many visitors opt to pay for a small-group trip to Mauna Kea with a 4×4 van to the summit, with a warm jacket and pair of gloves, hot beverages, and knowledgeable guide. At the summit as the sun sets you can see thousands of stars come out.
The Cosmosphere
5 Star Reviews: 78%
One of America’s best-known space museums is in the middle of Kansas. The Cosmosphere houses the largest collection of Soviet space artefacts outside of Russia, including a Sputnik engineering model and a powerful rocket engine. The Cosmosphere is also famous for displaying the Apollo 13 command module and the Liberty Bell 7, a Mercury spacecraft recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic after 38 years.
“Flight-ready backup for Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957—Kansas Cosmosphere, Huchinson, KS.”
getty
The museum was founded by Patty Carey, president of the Hutchinson Arts and Science Foundation, in the early 1960’s. Ms. Carey loved astronomy and felt everyone needs to understand the sky above them and the Earth on which they lived.
She raised funds to purchase a used planetarium projector and dome, which was erected in a vacant poultry exhibit building on the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson. She opened “Hutchinson’s Theatre of the Skies,’ on December 2, 1962. It was the first planetarium in the state.
The museum also features an SR-71 Blackbird and T-38 aircraft like those used for astronaut training, as well as displays of the Redstone and Titan rocket to illustrate the Mercury and Gemini programs.
The Cosmosphere’s restoration crew created 80 percent of the props for the movie Apollo 13 and restored the Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. And, in 1999, the crew took on the recovery and restoration of Liberty Bell 7.
The museum also shows digital space-related films and has an interactive STEAM area for children called CosmoKids opened.
A tour bus brings visitors to the Kennedy Space Center while mobile launcher 1 containing the massive Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft begins the long roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building from Launch Pad 39B in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 25, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty ImagesKennedy Space Center
5 Star Reviews: 71%
The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, FL, is the granddaddy of them all, NASA’s primary launch site, and the historic heart of America’s human spaceflight missions. It features displays like the massive Saturn V, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever flown to the moon.
Admission to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex also includes access to:
Space Shuttle Atlantis featuring the Shuttle Launch ExperienceGateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex featuring Spaceport KSCThe Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour including the Apollo/ Saturn V CenterHeroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame presented by Boeing.Astronaut Encounter (U.S. astronauts often appear at the complex)Rocket Garden and daily toursIMAX theater space films
There are also displays dedicated to NASA’s Artemis II mission, future Moon missions, and future Mars voyages. The Center even offers possible itineraries, including half-day, full day, full day with kids or two-day ‘full immersion.’
Admission is $77 for adults and $67 for children, although promotions are available. Optional add-on tours can take you behind the gates to see active launch pads.
Walter Cho, Chairman and CEO of Korean Air, addresses attendees inside the Korean Air Aviation Gallery at the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California, on May 12, 2026, following the installation of the first artifacts in the aviation gallery. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty ImagesCalifornia Science Center
5 Star Reviews: 69%
The California Science Center is L.A.’s major science museum and the final home of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The debut of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center sometime this year will mark its biggest milestone yet. This massive expansion features Endeavor in a vertical “ready-for-launch” stack, standing twenty stories tall with its original external tank and rocket boosters.
In April 2026, it was announced that work on the new 200,000 square building had concluded but the Science Center did not announce an opening date. The Museum will include the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
The museum is said to have one hundred aerospace artifacts integrated with one hundred new hands-on exhibits, Among the exhibits at the upcoming Korean Air Aviation Gallery, for example, are a Hawker Harrier jump-jet and the front of a Korean Air Boeing 747.
Admission to the main exhibits is free, while parking at Exposition Park is approximately $20.
A replica of R2-D2 is displayed in the Futures in Space exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC on Monday, July 28, 2025. The Museum reopened five galleries with updated objects and experiences. (Photo by Eric Lee/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Washington Post via Getty ImagesNational Air and Space Museum
5 Star Reviews: 68%
The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Following a massive multi-year renovation, the museum’s exhibits highlight aviation milestones such as the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, an early DC-3 and other historic air and spacecraft. (The Udvar-Hazy Center in nearby Chantilly, VA, is the museum’s other facility, with more than 200,000 square feet devoted to aviation history.)
Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight, World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation, Nation of Speed, and of course Destination Moon are among the themed displays. Visitors can also see a show at the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater or the Northrop Planetarium.
In the heart of Washington, D.C., the museum is just steps from the U.S. Capitol and the rest of the National Mall. Admission to the main exhibits is free, though you will need to get a timed entry online in advance. After all, more than 375 million people have visited since 1976.
Visitors look an exhibit of World War I aviation artifacts at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum after it reopened following its closure during the government shutdown on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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