— NASA has jumped on the collectible popcorn bucket bandwagon, or rather in this case, the bus.

To mark 60 years since its start as only a bus tour, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is holding a month-long celebration with special photo opportunities and "vintage throwbacks." It is also offering its first popcorn bucket.

"That looks really neat," said Steve Agid, a space program communicator who for the past 10 years has lead bus tours for the visitor complex, following a 40-year career as an engineer working on the space shuttle and Delta IV rockets. "It looks very much like our tour bus. I'm very, very impressed with it."

"I have got to get one of these things," Agid told collectSPACE.

If you have not been to a movie theater or a theme park in the last few years, you might be unaware of the craze that has taken over popcorn sales. The chance to buy limited edition popcorn buckets has drawn long lines and they have quickly sold out, depending on what part of pop culture they resemble. NASA's first entry into this trend faithfully reproduces one of its current tour buses wrapped in a Space Launch System (SLS) design with the tag, "We Are Going To The Moon."

The Kennedy Space Center Tour Bus 60th Anniversary popcorn bucket is now available for $29.99 at the visitor complex and for order through its online Space Shop. If bought in-person, it includes a bag of popcorn and free refills on the day of purchase.

Then and now

Agid first visited the space center before the bus tours began, when the public could drive their own cars on site for a self-guided tour on Sundays. The first time that he rode the bus was about a year after TWA (Trans World Airlines) began the tours under a contract with NASA on July 22, 1966.

Back then, there were two different options, covering either 30 miles in an hour and a half or 60 miles in three hours. For $1.75 per adult (or 50 cents per child 2 to 12 years old and $1.25 for teens), "Tour A" took you around Kennedy, "including the Vehicle Assembly Building with a stop to view the interior."

The VAB, which at one time was the world's most voluminous building, has an American flag painted along its side large enough that a tour bus could fit within any one of its red and white stripes.

"We don't take visitors to any place where there is any kind of danger or hazard, so with solid rocket motors now inside [for the SLS], we can't go in the VAB any more," said Agid.

For a $1.25 more per adult (or the same price for children), guests in 1966 could opt for "Tour B," which included all of Tour A "plus the Cape Kennedy [today Cape Canaveral] launch facilities," where at the time all human spaceflights began.

Other than some outdoor exhibits and facilities, there were no other options but the bus tour. Today, 60 years later, there is a sprawling visitor complex with multiple museum buildings, a rocket garden, an IMAX theater and a chance to meet and dine with an astronaut every day.

The Kennedy Space Center bus tour is included with general admission (regularly $77 per adult, $67 for children; currently $17.76 less each through Aug. 31 for the United States' 250th anniversary).

"Every guest is different, so I wouldn't want to say the bus tour is the highlight of every visit, but when guests come here in the morning, the overwhelming amount of them hit the bus tour first," said Agid.

In 1966, the bus driver was also the tour guide. TWA initially recruited ten "Space Center Escorts" from among its employees who both learned to drive the Greyhound buses and inform guests about the activities around the space center. Today, communicators like Agid join the driver and pre-recorded narration that is played back on overhead screens on one of the 47 modern Van Hool buses now in the fleet.

Sometimes, on some of the premium tours, an astronaut or and other experts join to share with guests their own experiences around the center.

Today's included bus tour includes two stops: The Gantry at LC-39, where guests can get can up see some of NASA's most historic and in-use launch pads, and the Apollo/Saturn V Center, where one the three remaining original moon boosters is on indoor display.

"My favorite is the Saturn V facility, and my favorite part of that is the launch countdown theater. That is what it's like to be in launch control without the music," said Agid. "If you take the music off and commentary, that's what it's really like."

Popcorn or bus(t)

The Kennedy Space Center Tour Bus 60th Anniversary popcorn bucket is not the first time the visitor complex's original ride has been a memento.

In addition to pamphlets and brochures used by TWA to promote and sell the tour, the visitor complex produced a souvenir tour book, a "floaty" pen featuring the bus and sold at least one model of snow globe with the bus as its sculpted base. The model train company Rapido also made a $70 HO 1:87 scale model of the vehicle with its original 1966 livery.

But none of those came with popcorn.

"You cannot eat food while on the bus," Agid told collectSPACE. "But can you take food on the bus? Yes, you can."

"For the tours, we have stops. When you get off the bus, then you can take your snack," he said. So you can bring [the popcorn bucket] on the bus, but cannot eat from it while on board."