CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex bus tours have spanned six decades, bringing visitors through parts of the space center and offering guided views of landmarks including the Vehicle Assembly Building, viewing gantry and launch pads.
Steve Agid, a “communicator” for the visitor complex bus tours for the past decade, said the tours give guests a way to connect with the space program beyond what they have seen on television.
“The number one thing is you look at the people and you see the eyes light up,” Agid said.
Agid’s history with Kennedy Space Center dates to 1973, when he was a college junior and worked as a tour guide with the interpretive service office, now known as communicators. He said the work involved explaining the space program to visitors.
Agid later worked for different NASA contractors on the Space Shuttle program. He said he tested spacecraft when astronauts were not at the center on 60 of the 135 shuttle missions.
He also worked as the launch commentator for Atlas and Delta rocket launches until 2016.
“On launch day for 12 years, I was the flight and countdown commentator, known as the guy who says 3, 2, 1,” Agid said.
Agid’s connection to the center began even earlier, when he took a tour as a child in the mid-1960s. He said visitors could drive onto the center in their own cars before bus tours began.
The Kennedy Space Center bus tours launched in July 1966. Agid said more than 1,500 people showed up on the first rainy Friday, when 10 buses were not enough and five more had to be borrowed.
“That first week they had 13,555 guests, 100,000 the first three months and nearly 500,000 for the first year of the bus tour,” Agid said.
Six decades later, Agid said the number of visitors has reached the tens of millions.