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IT AIN’T THE MOON THAT’S CHEESE: While I didn’t get to see the STS-110 launch last week, I did visit the KSC visitor’s center, and was moved to ranting by…the gift shop, of all things.

When I think of a gift shop at the world’s premiere space launch facility, I imagine a shop which sells a wide array of models and books and memorabilia relating to the space program. A place where one can buy things not available elsewhere, unique items produced exclusively for that shop. Of a huge assortment of extra-nifty space toys. Of a dazzling array of prints and posters reproduced from the immense imagery collections of the space agency.

I do not think of booths where one can get one’s coat-of-arms printed. Or buckets of colored rocks.

To be fair, the gift shop at KSC does indeed have books and models and such, but a fairly paltry selection — a number of books I would have expected to see there (such as Dennis Jenkins’ fantastic Space Shuttle) were not, and the models were almost exclusively K’Nex or similar snap-together types.

Most baffling was the near-absence of Apollo-related materials. I mean, you’d think there’d be some Apollo models or books available, right? On prominent display, perhaps? There were some items, but very little.

Equally disappointing was the none-too-mysterious absence of non-U.S. space program materials among the toys and such. While it would have been nice (he says, grossly understating it) to find a Soviet N-1 model available, I was under no illusions as to the likelihood of that — the shop is under the umbrella of NASA after all.

Sure, there is some merchandise which is NASA-unique, and the store isn’t a complete write-off for those who are serious about space, but there is far more junk and cheesy merchandise there than there really ought to be.

(For schedule reasons, we didn’t get out to the Saturn V Center, which experience would have surely overshadowed the gift shop cheesiness.)