Located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, NASA Ames research center has been a center for aerospace research sine 1939. The center located on what was Moffett NAS is home to the world largest wind tunnel in the world. It includes ARC Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex, Arc Jet Complex, among others. It continues to be a center for space and hypersonic research. Scattered throughout the base proper are countless models and references to programs past and present. In a nod to its space heritage a scale wind tunnel model of the Space Shuttle serves as a gate guard. It also was the main developer of the airborne telescopes the Kuiper and SOFIA Aside from the visitor center there is no accessign the base however, they on occasion have open houses and will allow the public to view special planes like SOFIA. Major portions of the base can be viewed from the adjacent roadways and Bay Trail read more

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Great easy fun for kids, museum can kill an hour with memorabilia, old planes and gear, and hosts just happy someone is there to talk to

Great customer services, I highly recommended NASA to everyone to check it out and they have really huge parking spot for visitors to park their car. read more

It's much smaller than I thought. They might need some new exhibitions. The gift shop has great souvenirs for NASA fans. Some funny t-shirts. Parking: Free. read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

This place is pretty cool and in the heart of Silicon Valley! I came here once before a couple of months ago to look at the Visitor Center. Being a resident of Silicon Valley, I decided one day that I needed to visit the important locations of my town. HOWEVER, upon getting here, I was told that visitors can only walk in and explore the visitor's tent--nothing else. BOO HOO. But I recently came back during a Food Truck event that took place inSIDE the NASA Research center!!! I was able to see the famous wind tunnels for testing flights and ships! It was grand. There were tons of families also getting their educational experience on, and I was SO glad I could see inside the NASA center--or at least more than the visitor's tent. There should be more events like this, that way the public can really get to see more and learn more about NASA/space travel/government excursions! read more

NASA Ames Research Center - The famous wind tunnel!! - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

I expected a lot but was disappointed. I have been to The Valley tons of times and never been here so finally was quite excited when our tour decided to take us here. Caution, don't turn up here without photo id as they will not let you past the gates. It's just a great big piece of land with buildings you cannot get into. The visitor center has some interesting displays and the shop is pretty average. Most people in our tour group were disappointed to be walking around abandoned buildings with little to see or know. The hangar is the most interesting building here and most of the land is now owned by google from what we were told by our guide. It was a waste of time in my opinion. read more

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I recently brought a tour group of twenty-something year olds here. I made a booking by filling out their reservation form which can be found online on the website. They recommended allotting 2 hours for a self-guided tour of the whole place. If there wasn't a model of the spacecraft in the middle of the center, I'd say that you could probably see everything from the front entrance so I'd plan accordingly. There aren't that many exhibits and many of them were off or out of order, including the flight simulator. I assume that the ones that were off were also out of order because we did tell them ahead of time that we were coming. Some of the displays looked like they could have been a child's art projects and others were really old and dusty. There were two saving aspects. The shuttle model was pretty cool, a lot of lights and switches you could play with. They don't really do anything but it felt good to do something hands on like at most discovery type museums. Because we had a large group, we were able to request a showing of a documentary in their auditorium. We opted for one about the exploration of Mars. Now this was a video that was actually from YouTube (and not from the official NASA channel) but I appreciate that curated it specifically for our interests and age group. Other small factors were the free admission, free and ample parking and the gift shop. The gift shop was very reasonably priced. I wouldn't plan an entire afternoon around the center but it's worth checking out. read more

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On its own, just going to the NASA Ames Exploration Center alone may leave you with lots of time left on your hands for a family and friends' day out. But, when it's combined with going to the Computer History Museum, just a short Hi way 101 short off-ramp up, you will have 2-4 hours of kid and adult captivating activity that captures the exciting intersection of technology and space. Next to Ames Research Center is Moffett Field and thuge skeletons of a WWII blimp hangars. Airforce One frequently flew into Moffett Air Field with the previous POTUS -snarling Hiway 101 traffic for hours while his entourage hobnobbed with Tech's finest. If you can -try to go to Ames Exploration Center during the week, preferably mid day, to avoid commute traffic. After an exhausting day at Ames and then The Computer History Museum you can kick back at the Shoreline Movie Theaters, literally across the street. They have recliners instead of old movie seats. Popular movies get booked up because of assigned seats. Got another day to burn? Head over to Technology Museum in San Jose. This is worth a full day. read more

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Tour Date: March 16th, 2012 Thank you to our Yelp Community Manager, Abby S, and the staff of NASA AMES! I was able to visit the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS)! This was the highlight of the tour and an extreme joy because I always wanted to become a fighter pilot. Yes, I wanted to be Maverick of Top Gun. Since I wasn't a pilot in training, I wasn't able to experience the simulator in motion. But they allowed me to sit in the pilot's seat and get the visual experience. And I have to tell you - it felt like the real thing because I physically had an adrenaline rush!!! Logistics: - You have to make reservations for the private tour. Visit their website for details. You cannot walk into NASA or the Moffett Field base unannounced. They do conduct background checks (must be U.S. Citizen to get a private tour). - Visitors park at the NASA Space Museum Visitors Center (the big white tent before the front gates). - Walk over to the small building next to the front gate to obtain your visitors badge. - Our tour began at the NASA Space Museum Visitor Center where you can see actual space gear, technology, and rocks. - NASA provided an eight person shuttle inside the campus during our private tour. - Facilities visited: Vertical Motion Simulator, FutureFlight Central (Airport Tower), Supercomputing Center (the data center filled with SGI computers that make simulation possible), and finally the Kepler viewing room. Factoids: - They have a fallout shelter. So if the aliens come, this is where you want to be. - Perfect for school field trips. - If your date is a Trekkie, take her / him here. I'm sure they're appreciation it. - I saw a glimpse of the Google plane. - The big white balls on the campus are filled with water (used for cooling). No... they do not contain jet fuel. I asked. SPECIAL THANKS TO: Mr. Girish Chachad for the detailed tour and informative background on the NASA community!!! read more

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Small museum of flight research and airships tucked away on Moffat Field. There is a second museum of space tech on the other side of the base. These museums have so much potential but are clearly underfunded. They could benefit from new buildings and some real infrastructure. If you want to learn about early flight research and especially all about the Navy's airship programs from the 1930's this is the place to visit. They have so much to offer on the subject of early flight and airships; adequate funding and facilities would benefit both visitors and researchers alike. The space museum is kind of sparse and considering the wealth of artifacts available to them from NASA kind of thin on exhibits. read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Skeleton of the big ridged airship hanger. - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

Fun place to learn a bit about many of NASA's missions and projects as NASA Ames is a key research facility. The visitor center is a self-guided tour. It takes about 1-2 hours to view and read all the exhibits. Missions and projects at Ames include entry systems, next-gen air transportation, airborne science, low-cost missions, lunar science, human factors, Kepler mission, SOFIA, K10 Rovers, Fruit Fly Lab, Plant Biology, Quantum computing, wind tunnels. Exhibits for *some* of these are represented at the visitor center. New hours for the visitor center (big white tent) effective 1/6/2015. The new hours will be Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays and federal holidays. Badged employees (civil servants, contractors, student interns, those on research grants and fellowships) and sponsored visitors can get into NASA ARC... It's a chill place to hang out during a lunch break or with kids. It's FREE and the A/C feels so good on a hot summer day! read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Lotus Evora in front of the NASA Ames Administration Building - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

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Their Open House today as part of the 75th Anniversary celebration attracted huge crowds. There was no parking at the compound so we took VTA in San Jose to the NASA station and then walked in there. Even though me and my photographer friends did enjoy photographing the cool historical aircraft as well as appreciating the distinct aerodynamic architecture of the famous Hangar One, I felt like we were in Disney World with long lines of people for any demo/interactive thingy that was interesting, but without the "fast pass" lane. You are probably better off sitting in the comfort of your own home accessing their website on line to find out more about their research projects; unless of course you do enjoy rubbing shoulders with strangers or walking for a few hours in what felt like 100 degrees heat only to see the outside of a few buildings. To be fair, this was the first time I was here and if not for their Open House event I would not have come here and learned a little bit about the history of Moffett Field and the NASA research center. They have a space shuttle museum, which would be cool to visit with your science minded friends or bring your kids for an educational tour. But you can always come at other times when there is no crowd and the place does not feel like a zoo. So I might not be back any time soon.... read more

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Was pretty disappointed since it was tiny and frankly kinda lame. No tours and it was separate from the bigger facilities which were inside a gated entrance. Honestly it was mostly just a big gift shop with like 3 displays. The employees were very friendly and at least the astronaut ice cream was good - had it before and actually wanted another one. $5 for packaged dehydrated ice cream is a bit steep but it's at least worth a try once in your life. We probably spent no more than 10 minutes here before we left to get dinner. Not a ton of things nearby so need to drive maybe 10 minutes minimum to find restaurants which is an extra bummer... I don't recommend unless you're a local with not much better things to do read more

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FIRST & FOREMOST - it is FREE! No charge at all to go in. So awesome! The parking lot is quite large, we did go on a Sunday & there wasn't a lot of cars, maybe about 10-15. The tent is quite worn looking so it made me skeptical of the inside but once inside - we were greeted by people at the front desk. They have so much to see in this little place! They have displays of old astronaut suits - which is cool. They have a room that has wallpaper from ceiling to floor of being in space - GREAT FOR A PHOTO-OP! - this is the room where the lunar rock sample is. The globe towards the middle of the entire place was my favorite part - it has projected images on it that cycles through. They have a picture spot where you can put your face in the holes (you know what I'm talking about, right?) You can also go into an actual space station portion they have in there - not sure if it's actual or just a replica. I liked it but it smelled like dirty diapers in there so I couldn't stay in there that long - they had a fan in there but it wasn't working. Towards one of the exits - they have a display where it shows all the things that are possible because of NASA's research. Pretty awesome to see. They have a gift shop in there in case you want to buy souvenirs. Not a bad stop that doesn't cost a dime! Unless you visit the gift shop. read more

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Brought my three nephews here on a Tuesday at 10:30 am. On their website it says one can be here for an hour but we were in and out in 30 minutes including gift shop. Although the center is free and parking is free, I would've expected more but hey, can't complain. The "theatre" is really just a giant projector with youtube videos playing. I think it would be awesome if they had interactive presentations with people. I would not recommend this if you are coming from far away because 101 is always a nightmare. Come here if you need a pitstop break. read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Does make for cool photos - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

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This is pretty small place but with very interesting exhibits and a great place to spend a couple of hours. And as a friendly reminder to those who have bashed this place, it is FREE!! Please don't send me flame emails that it is not free and uses our tax $$. ;-) It is definitely bigger inside from what it looks like. I got to watch a couple of really interesting movies/presentations by a very knowledgeable gentlemen who is obviously passionate about this field and clearly knows his stuff. I am still waiting for them to find more earth like planets and eventually ... life. Seems like they are getting close especially with the Kepler project. The exhibits including a real moon rock were very interesting as well and the gift store had some cool items including astronaut food. If you love space, Nasa or have curious kids, this is a great place to take them. read more

The NASA Ames visitor center is literally a tent with 3-4 interesting Space related exhibits which can be experienced within 20 minutes. I expected more exploration exhibits, hands on learning, and excitement considering NASA's history. Since you're already here, the real secret next door is the Moffet Field Museum, which has full sized NASA jets, war history, and aeronautical gadgets. Plus, you can view the giant hanger from the museum. To get into Moffet Field, be prepared to drive in and to have state issued IDs for all adults. read more

This visitor center is quite small. You can finish the entire tour in about 15 minutes or so. It's basically a small museum with some cool artifacts but that's about it. There's also a small gift shop that was, for some reason, cash only. I think their systems were still down. I would not recommend going long distances to come here because you will feel like it was not worth it. We actually came from next door, and we were still disappointed that we spent about 15 minutes to get there only to finish the tour in about 15 minutes. read more

Came here for the wind tunnel tour this time. The facility is a little dated but still amazing. The docents are experts in their field. Listening to them talk about their projects and research, I felt like a kid engrossed in a fairy tale. I hope they continue to do research and testing there. There is still so much out there for us to explore. read more

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Free! That's music to my ears considering you have to pay an arm and a leg to go to any museums now (Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium etc). This is a really small place but again, considering it's free you can't complain. They have a big astronaught & a small astronaught stand in the front where you can stick your head into the helmet part and take pictures. My kids were too young to appreciate the lecture but they did like the fake space ship that you can go in and play. The gift shop is moderately priced considering how museums jacked up mementos. I got a neato Blue glass mug with the Nasa logo on it for $7 (that could easily cost you $14 at the Academy!). No sales tax. I don't know if it's because this is a federal entity but nope I wasn't charged additional. The mug was made in the USA too (you don't see a lot of those at the junk shops in the museums). A very nice place to spend some time in! read more

We came here for NASA's 75th Anniversary! We came a bit early due to limited parking. I was very surprised to see that they had already started to let people in and they weren't taking tickets which was a plus or there would have been a huge bottleneck. This place is huge and they had many booths set up for this large crowd. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have more indoor demonstrations. You had to sign up in advance and they sold out very quickly. The event itself was free. They did not publicize very the 100+ food truck event they were having here, and it wasn't easy to find either. Many of my friends who came to the event said they couldn't find the food trucks. We did find them, there were just too many choices!!! Overall great event, I am glad I had the opportunity to visit NASA! read more

I think we were luckier than most, because some of the horror stories from the Open House morning of checkpoints was not the case with our journey. However, we arrived at 12:30 and left by 3:30, and the lines and crowds were still awful. We parked near Villa and Shoreline, about a 10-min walk from the Mountain View Caltrain/VTA station. Our original plan was to take the provided shuttle from there, but after waiting for 15 minutes the security guard told us the wait was about 2 hours, so we decided to ignore the tweets saying you couldn't walk in and take VTA to the Bayshore/NASA station. Only one of the VTA ticket stations was working and there were about 50 of us on the platform with the same idea, so we risked a fare inspection and hopped on anyway. By the time we arrived, it seemed security had given up prohibiting people from walking in (or checking tickets), and that was much faster than their estimated 45 minute wait for another shuttle for the 1.5 mile walk. The aircraft were cool to get up close and look at, but I've seen the same at a better-orchestrated events like air shows or the USS Midway. I should've prioritized the windtunnel or supercomputer but we couldn't even find a map (or anyone who knew where one was, and cell signal was useless to look up a map) until we had been there for 2 hours and walked over 4 miles between getting there and walking around the aircraft. To make matters worse, many of the security guards were overworked, understaffed and cranky, which led to a few annoying power-trippers telling us we couldn't sit in the shade next to the beverage stand "because the insurance didn't cover non-staff being within 20 feet of the parked trailer" despite the heat, people within 20 feet on the other side of that truck, and that that's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard at an event with over 100k people. Getting back at 3:30 was worse on the crowd end, as the VTA platform was packed to the gills. Forget even finding the clipper tag station. ...On the upside, we did a novel thing and the margarita we enjoyed at dinner tasted that much better. read more

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The only thing you can actually access is the Visitor Center, which is a mismatched collection of what I assume are replicas of a few space-y things. Some items don't have information placards as far as I could see, although they keep the lighting quite low so I could have missed something. The moon rock was pretty cool to see, and they have a fun photo op where you can pose as an astronaut. I was incredibly disappointed that they have original spacesuits displayed in a corner on dated mannequins without support. All in all, it took about 20 minutes to look around and felt like an elementary school science fair. Irony: The gift shop's computer was down so they were cash only. Said it would be 5 weeks before the system got fixed. Seems odd to have a computer down for so long at a NASA facility. read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Original Gemini(?) spacesuit - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

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Who doesn't love AMES and what they do here either in person, or via their internet site? But I tell you the real magic is a personal tour by people who work here. I wish everyone could get that kind of behind-the-scenes look. But then our scientists and tech would have not time to get real work done! My visits have been great every time. Whether for work or as a tourist. I would say AMES is one of those places to stop by if you have any time at all in your travel plans to do so. read more

We went to NASA Ames Research for the Moonfest 2009 on Sun 7/19/09. They were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and the present day LCROSS mission. It was FREE so I went. We got there late and traffic was pretty bad. They had some people directing traffic but not enough. Hot day which made it pretty miserable for me. We missed the opening remarks, caught the end of the talk by Dr. Lawrence Krauss. Didn't see the Ames Jazz Band. We saw a few Rockets being shot into the air - that was ok. Walked a bit around the kids' activities and I missed the Moonpie that was given out. Only things I got out of it were some bookmarks and 2 rocket pens. read more

There are two sections to this base- The Moffett Side and the Ames side. The Moffett side is, for lack of better words, a ghost town. But it holds so much history that any bystander off the street just wouldn't understand. Hangar 1 looks like an abandoned structure but it really is a local landmark. Take the time to go around the Moffett side and ignore how "old" everything looks and realize how this really used to be a it's own little city. In fact, Moffett Field is an actual city with it's own zip code. Now the Ames side required non employee to get visitor passes. Which means unless you have official business, its a red light for some. Again driving around it is just basic buildings. The landscaping is a lot more lively than the Moffett side and there is a lot more life. However it is what goes on inside the buildings thats the amazing part. Wind tunnels, exercise platforms for astronauts, flight simulators, it is an aeronautics/engineers dream! If you or your child has an opportunity to visit the base, it is definitely very beneficial. Ames is proactive if educating children in an attempt to recruit more potentials in the aeronautics industry. This is just a neat place to be and a very casual environment if you work here. Enjoy and Learn! read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Flight operations - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

My 10 & 11 year old boys had a great time. Great way to spend an hour, especially if you have a child who loves anything Space oriented. There were a few hands on exhibits my kids really enjoyed. No it wasn't fancy and could use updating but my kids really enjoyed it anyway! The gift shop was a huge hit with my kids and we intentionally spent a little more because admission is Free. read more

NASA Ames Research Center - The shuttle flight simulator is a cute & fun experience for the space enthusiast! - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

Bring the kids, bring the parents, bring the grandparents- SO much fun and additionally fun if you visit them on a day of a space shuttle launch. I know, gone are the days when we would actually watch space shuttle launches at school and stuff, but space exploration is pretty fascinating, even if you don't agree with its budget, right? They have a few freebies they give out (our taxes pay for them anyway) including decals, posters, and colouring books for the kidlets.) Lots of neat exhibits (all free!) and it's small enough so that it's not an entire *day* experience. Getting out of the fog in the city has never been so educational! read more

NASA Ames Research Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Mountain View, California

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I went to NASA's 75th Anniversary Open House today and it was THE WORST EXPERIENCE. 0/10 1. Why are there so many people!??!? I truly doubt everyone had a ticket for entry. Why did I register a month ago? No one even checked my ticket. 120,000 tickets were allegedly sent out and I guarantee there were more people than that! 2. I entered through the Ellis St. Gate and just had no idea where to start. My level of excitement was still pretty high at this time so I started by going through Hanger 1 and taking some pictures. I've driven past it for years and it was amazing to finally be inside it! But the excitement quickly subsided as more and more people packed in. There was no one with any information or even a map. After walking around aimlessly for about 20 minutes, I stumbled upon an information booth. However, they just gave me a booklet and no other information. I read maps fairly easily, but this map was terrible and it took me another 20 minutes walking around looking for landmarks before I figured out where I was. Doesn't matter though, it's not like I could actually see anything. 3. Does NASA not understand what an open house is? I would have liked to go into some buildings, perhaps even see a few demonstrations. But no, we were only allowed to walk and observe building from the outside. There was a line of over 50 people to LOOK THROUGH A WINDOW. Yes, from the outside of the building. Absolutely ridiculous. Ok, well, they let us into the lobby of the Sustainability Base... it took 20 minutes to get inside and all we saw were posters. 4. Speaking of posters- I don't understand how this makes anyone happy. You print things with 12pt font and expect people to read it? Well, they're going to take 5 minutes and cause lines around the booths. But more importantly, if I just wanted to read about something, I have the internet. I don't want to walk 5+ miles to read posters. 5. The booths were awful. If there was anything interactive, it was few and far in between and extremely limited. Like, one person could do it at a time. I waited about 10 minutes for a family to go through a demo only to have two kids cut in front of me. I give up. It's not my job to discipline other people's children. 6. There has got to be some violations from today. There were only three beverage stands in the complex (not counting the food truck area which is very distanced from the main complex). By the time I found the first beverage stand, I was nearly dying from thirst. I did not see a SINGLE water fountain the entire time and believe me when I saw I was looking the entire time. Overall, my level of disappointment is quite high. Everyone looked miserable. Children were crying to go home. I was kicking myself on the inside for going through all this trouble to literally do nothing but aimlessly wander around for three hours and become dehydrated. NASA should have done us all a favor and kept its gates closed. It's been 17 years since the last Open House and I can honestly say... I get it. I mean, unless this Open House was to deter people from becoming interested, then goal achieved! read more

2014 yearly Open House review: Positive side: Lots of temp port a potty, pretty convenient. The 150 or so food trucks were amazing. I'd say, the food trucks, music, and resting under the trees were the highlight of the NASA Open House. Everything else is downhill. Disorganized is an understatement. Chaos is more like it. This is worse than Disneyland on a weekend. Totally understaffed and security & staff members are stressed and pissy. Tour is extremely crowded and disorganized. Don't bother parking. There IS bicycle parking, highly recommended and will save you 1.5 hour getting in. If you wait at Ellis entrance, DO NOT walk to the main entrance, instead take the bus because the bus wait is way shorter than walking around to get to the main gate. Wear white, it is hot hot got under the sun waiting in the line. If you don't have any bag, stroller, etc you can skip the hour long line for inspection. Not a toddler friendly event, wait till your kid is over 10. I feel sorry for all these tired and cranky toddlers walking around with nothing interesting to see besides NASA posters. Everything has a long line, and people are cutting in left and right and nobody to enforce it. total chaos and people are very very upset in general, lots of kids crying because it's so damn uncomfortable and people shoving and shouting. When you finally get to the main entrance after 1-2 hours of foot and car traffic, there is yet another extremely long wait and ridiculous people traffic waiting to go through the security gate, so expect yet another 1-1.5 hour in line. While I got an email the week before, the email lacks details (lacks bicycle parking for example) and parking and walking and routing and things of that sort. Whoever organized this should be fired immediately. NASA's past prestige and glory are long gone. If NASA's Open House represents the future of American space program, we're totally fvcked. read more

I'm rounding up to four stars for the NASA Visitor Center because its mere existence is pretty awesome. My five year old and I spent about 90 minutes here yesterday. We saw pretty much everything in the first 15 minutes, then went back through and spent more time with the things that caught his attention. The center offers a few great models, a lot of compelling photos and a reason to learn more about the solar system. It's fair to say that the visitor center here has the appearance of an afterthought -- really NASA Ames is a research facility -- and that many of the exhibits appear amateurish or in disrepair. So I was admittedly a little disappointed, and couldn't help thinking that NASA should get together with the people who run the Tech Museum in San Jose or the Exploratorium... NASA has so much great content to work with that it's a shame their "museum" is relatively lame. So it's not an all-day museum, but it is still a fun little visitor center and I'd recommend it as a good place to stop in for an hour. read more

2014, 75th aniversary open house at Nasa's ames research center was worst event ever. Too many people, no organized programs, no public access to any buildings (only limited few people who have the backstage tickets can get in the building) only 3 spots that you can buy beverage (if u wanna buy a water or drinks, you have to wait in a line for 30mins.) I dont know what is "open house". Why don't they put the name "open yard'. They only opened yard area and placed some posters, booths, plastic balloon and that is it. Totally worst experience ever. My 8year old son was almost crying. Very disapointed. read more

Wow, this place has gone downhill...probably due to federal budget cuts...but I digress.. Back in the mid 90's ,this place housed Space Camp and had tons of cool exhibits, flight simulators, you could climb around in the shuttles and play with all the light up panels...you felt like you were in an actual spaceship because you WERE!! Neat!! ! All that is pretty much gone...and the place looks like it hasn't been updated in 10 plus years! The NASA-Ames Museum of 2010 now boasts that they are admission free (sadly they are almost "exhbit free" too! ) Besides the giant moon rock, the coolest thing is the wind tunnel exhibit and the museum with photos from the various missions...AND the gift shop (when it's open) has lots of fun NASA-themed memorabilia...including these really neat rocket pens! My 7 and 10 year old niece and nephews enjoyed the interactive exhibits, photos and the wind tunnel! You can see everything inside of 90 minutes! If you're in the area with younguns and have some time to kill, check this place out! Otherwise, you'd probably be better off that the Discovery Museum or Lawrence Hall of Science. NASA...c'mon, you can do better!! read more

This visitor center could be nice, but not right now. Maybe they have planned upgrades. As of July 2019 there are no interactive displays, the lunar rock sample has been taken away. There is a model of the SOPHIA flying observatory, an unmanned Gemini capsule, and a wind turbine blade. Literally 95% of the square footage in the center is now gift shop material. I appreciated the stains and moss growing all over the seams on the outside of the structure and the abandoned refrigerator I parked next to.... really gave the feel that NASA is a national treasure. read more

For their 75th Anniversary Open House, NASA Ames tried to accommodate too many people with too few exhibits and resources. I won't go over all the same comments and criticisms already posted here, but whoever at NASA Ames thought an open house was a good idea obviously meant well but didn't think through these reasons NOT to do it: - a poorly executed event with 120,000 people means 500,000+ people (after they've told their friends and family, and those reading via social media) will now think poorly of NASA Ames and on a broader level, government entities - the waste of gas, CHP and NASA resources, and the public's time and energy for an event that only truly reached a fraction of the 120,000 - showcasing technology from 20 years ago doesn't show how innovative NASA is, only that NASA was a one-hit wonder - I'd take a wild guess that if Elon Musk was pondering a public event of SpaceX, he'd: a) sell 1000 tickets for a one day event, with the proceeds donated to aeronautical engineering scholarships; b) allow a dozen journalists in to document the day for the public; c) realize ahead of time that quality is more important than quantity read more

a small NASA museum. I have been to Houston NASA center, this is a very small scale of Nasa center compared to the one in Houston. read more

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Favorite place to visit when in Santa Clara County, really miss going there during these super difficult times. The best official NASA gifts. read more

Free science! Free science! We were supposed to go to the Moffett Field Historical Museum on Saturday to meet up with two friends, but we are idiots and accidentally went to this place instead. Fortune favors the stupid! Our visit coincided with an interactive lecture about space given by one of the Ames docents to a group of 8 yr old girl scouts. Since we're idiots (see above) we learned a lot from this, and also got to watch a gnarly video-game like tour of the planets and the universe. There's also a moon rock and you can buy TAX FREE ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM in the gift shop. Best day ever. read more

GO NASA! I currently work here, which is interesting, but probably not as interesting as you think it is. We got wind tunnels, laboratories, hangars, and yes, even our own McDonald's. There used to be Space Camp and some other cool things here, but not so much anymore. There's still a visitor's center and a gift shop though, so come on by! Save Hangar One! and RIP Johnny Green. read more

Was excited to go today until we got there. Pluses, the food trucks. Certainly the highlight of the day. That part was a lot of fun and the different trucks were tasty. Lots of port-o-potties. Couldn't turn a corner without running into a group of them. Negative, way too crowded. The booths were underwhelming and lacking. It was way too crowded to approach the booths to see much. When we did get to the booths, the information wasn't that exciting for the kids. We parked in the lot but it took us over 2 hours to leave. We tried leaving at 1:30 but couldn't get out of the lot until 3:35. It was ridiculous and highly unorganized. NASA needs to learn a thing or two from the Maker's Faire if they want to have such a big, public event. read more