The National Space Centre is a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a spaceresearch programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. It is located on the north side of the city in Belgrave, Leicester, England, next to the River Soar. Many of the exhibits, including upright rockets, are housed in a tower with minimal steel supports and a semi-transparent cladding of ETFE 'pillows' which has become one of Leicester's most recognisable landmarks.
History
The building was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, and it opened to the public on 30 June 2001. The tower is tall and claims to be the only place to house upright space rockets indoors.
University of Leicester
The centre arose from a partnership between the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre and local government agencies. The total project cost was £52m, £26m of which came from a Millennium Commission grant, and the rest from private sector sponsors. It is run as an educational charity, and offers science workshops for school children of all ages. The National Space Centre currently has post-doctoral science researchers based at the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre and the University of Nottingham's Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy.
Main exhibits
The Centre has on display one of only three known Soyuz spacecraft in the West. The centre has six main galleries of exhibits and visitor activities covering space flight, astronomy and cosmology. The attraction also includes a Digistar 3 dome cinema and planetarium, a gift shop and a restaurant. The restaurant is situated beneath the two nozzles of the Blue Streak and PGM-17 Thor rockets.
Facilities
Digital visualisation
The Centre's own digital visualisation team, NSC Creative, make all the "fulldome" planetarium shows shown at the Centre. By 2011, NSC Creative fulldome shows are playing in over 220 planetaria in 27 countries worldwide. These productions include the official International Year of Astronomy planetarium show "We are Astronomers" which was funded by the UKScience and Technology Facilities Council.
Near Earth objects
The failed Beagle 2Mars spacecraft was controlled from the centre's Landing Operations Control Centre. UK Government's official Near-Earth object Information Centre is also based at the centre.
More recently the National Space Centre hosted a UK tour by the NASASTS-121 crew, including UK born astronaut Piers Sellers. The crew spoke to MPs, industry leaders and school children about the UK Space Industry. Many of the children who met the crew said they were inspired to consider science and technology as a further education topic.
In 2007, the National Space Centre celebrated 50 Years in Space: the anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik.
