Space Shuttle Experience, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Former astronauts exit the Space Shuttle Experience launch simulator during the grand opening at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Friday, May 25, 2007. The exit has a spiral ramp with a simulated view of earth from outer space.

The $60 million, 44,000 square-foot Shuttle Launch Experience is the most technologically advanced attraction ever created for NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and gives riders a realistic feel of what it is like to blast off in a space shuttle. After riders are strapped into their seats, the shuttle simulator lifts off, taking its "crew" on a four-minute ride into space. When passengers arrive in orbit, the shuttle's cargo doors open and passengers get a spectacular view of planet Earth, just as real-life NASA astronauts would see it.

Harkness Screens supplied the specially shaped 20-foot by 38-foot rear projection screens used in the simulators.

Photo Credit: Robert Pearlman & AP Photo/John Raoux