Things to do in Palestine

Texas State Railroad Palestine Depot

Reagan Park

Polar Express

2026 Global 100 - Family-friendly Attractions

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston is located in Houston, Texas, USA, and is the official visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center. From the Apollo moon landings to the Space Shuttle era, most American crewed spacecraft launched from Florida, while flight control after liftoff came primarily from the adjacent Johnson Space Center: after the Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Moon in 1969, the phrase transmitted back to the ground, "Houston, Tranquility Base here," was calling precisely the control team here; the film Apollo 13 made "Houston, we have a problem" a popular catchphrase, and its prototype was also a real space emergency handled by the Houston ground team. Most of the highlights in the museum are real objects that have "been to space": Starship Gallery displays the Apollo 17 command module that carried out a lunar landing mission, the return capsules from the Mercury and Gemini programs, the training module astronauts used to prepare for the Skylab space station, and a moon rock you can touch with your own hands—only a handful of moon rocks worldwide are available for the public to touch; the spacesuit exhibition area brings together a large number of actual flight suits and extravehicular suits that were worn, including the lunar suit Pete Conrad wore while walking on the moon during Apollo 12. Outdoors, Independence Plaza stacks the real Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft and the space shuttle replica Independence one above the other, and visitors can go inside both; beside it lies a Falcon 9 rocket booster that flew a cargo mission to the International Space Station. The signature experience is the NASA tram tour, with multiple routes leading to different areas of Johnson Space Center: you can overlook full-scale spacecraft and space station mockups from the elevated walkway at the astronaut training facility, visit the historic mission control room restored to its Apollo-era appearance where the moon landing was commanded, and get a close look at the Saturn V giant rocket—over 100 m long and displayed horizontally—in Rocket Park; only a handful of complete Saturn V rockets survive worldwide. Allow most of a day for the visit; tram departure time slots are limited and spots on popular routes are tight, and queues are common at Independence Plaza during peak boarding hours, so it is best to make arrangements early after entering. The exhibit where you can touch a moon rock is inside Starship Gallery and is easy to miss inadvertently; meeting astronauts and hearing them recount their space experiences is a long-standing signature activity here, so keep an eye on the day's time slot schedule.

Davey Dogwood Park

Palestine Bowling Center

Historic Texas Theatre - Palestine Community Theatre

Railroad Heritage Center

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Bella Sera Ranch