The Space Shop — Local services in Cape Canaveral

They brand it as the largest space store in the world and it was underwhelming. They have some really cool NASA merchandise, but they lack any cool merchandise from some of NASA's main contractors. They had 3-4 SpaceX T-shirt designs, but they only have 1 shirt for Blue Orgin and I think they had a hat for Lockheed Martin. A large portion of the merchandise was also available online. It would be neat if they had in store only items. Checking out was a nightmare. They couldn't get the receipt to print and so they assumed our payment didn't go through, but by checking our account we could see that it did. They tried to get us to pay for it twice but we told them it went through. The lady running the register was kind about the situation, but her manager was making snarky comments to her co-workers about how she was positive that it didn't go through. They ended up getting the receipt to print and sure enough she was wrong and it had gone through. It wasted a solid 45 minutes of our time at the space center which was...

I have been going to this place for many years now. It is one of the reasons why I decided to go back to school and major in physics. I could tell the space shop has been suffering because of the pandemic because they no longer have the STEM corner of books on the second floor. They have astronaut autobiographies on the first floor but when I went last, you could find physics books, astro physics books, modern physics books, you could find books on space sciences and rockets, engineering and math puzzles. You could find space flight simulators for your computer. I was so hurt when I went to the second floor and saw that none of that was there and it was replaced by astronaut uniforms and toys. I hope that they will regain their interest in supporting STEM with more serious books like they used to, with the understanding that while everyone is using digital media and going to Amazon, a good old-fashioned book from NASA is quite inspirational. That aside, it...

The space shop has basically everything that you could want from sweatshirts, to patches, and even freeze dried ice cream. Pro. Tip: if you are just looking for a snack and not wanting to get into line for the orbit cafe. The space shop also has chips, candy bars, soft drinks, and water. Just keep in mind you're going to pay a premium price just like at an amusement park. For a family of five each getting chips and a drink and splitting a couple of candy bars. It was $52. Pro tip #2: They do give a military discount...