National Space Centre

The National Space Centre is an educational centre and museum of space exploration and astronomy. The main building, a 42-metre tower with translucent cladding designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, contains two ballistic missile rockets in upright position – the British Blue Streak and the American Thor. It also houses an Apollo lunar lander. Visitors walk through a reconstruction of the Columbus Module from the International Space Station. Other galleries include a planetarium, explanations of the solar system and the universe and exhibitions about satellites and their functions in navigation, weather forecasting, disaster warning and environmental monitoring. The interactive displays consider the search for extra-terrestrial life, the origins of the universe and the nature of black holes. The ‘Tranquility Base’ is a lunar base as it might be in the future, which gives visitors the chance to walk inside and control jet boosters or mine moon rock.