The final weeks of Exploring Space bring to an end a gallery that first opened back in 1986 under the name Exploration of Space. For the best part of 40 years it has proved to be one of the Science Museum’s most popular galleries, displaying real rockets hanging from the ceiling, spacecraft and satellites, a host of other space technologies, as well as a piece of the Moon. Visitors still have a few weeks before the gallery closes on 2 June to see a replica of Eagle, the lander that took astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon in 1969, and discover how we are able to live in space, from breathing to eating to going to the toilet.
When it opened, Exploration of Space had 13 sections covering just about everything the 1980s visitor might want to know about space exploration. This was a timely topic: the Apollo missions had put people on the Moon for the first time just a few years before in 1969, Britain had successfully launched a satellite with its Black Arrow rocket for the first time in 1971, and the European Space Agency had recently launched its Ariane 1 rocket. The gallery also boasted a unique feature for the museum – a dedicated temporary exhibition area where some 30-plus displays were mounted with minimal effort over the next twenty years. Subjects ranged from spaceplanes to postage stamps and from the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, to ‘Canada in Space’.
Another star of the original Exploration of Space gallery was the Apollo 10 command module. This spacecraft, was used for the dress rehearsal of the Moon landing in May 1969. In many ways, Apollo 10 was the seed from which Exploration of Space grew. It was delivered to the Museum in January 1976 after an arduous tour of Europe. Its owner – the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in the US – was more than happy for it to stay put and over the next decade two successive galleries were built around it: Exploration (1977) and Exploration of Space (1986).
In addition to the innovations in space technology which found their place in the displays, numerous changes took place in the gallery over the years for more practical purposes. The ‘Europe in Space’ section had to make way when the escalators at the west end of the gallery were replaced with lifts in the 1990s. In 2000, the entire gallery was closed so that its V2 missile and the Apollo 10 command module could be moved to the Making the Modern World gallery, where it is still on display. Shifting such large objects meant deconstructing a third of the gallery and its narratives – both of which had to be recreated. All was completed in six weeks flat.
The next big change came in 2007 when the gallery was converted into Exploring Space. There was a proper 2D and 3D design which helped bind the scattered sections together. Alas, the mezzanine level had to go . Some of the other original objects from Exploration of Space and sections stayed while new ones were introduced. We opened a new satellite section at the far end inspired by software showing all of the satellites – working and dead – then in orbit (bar the military ones!). We projected these onto a large screen where little yellow dots represented the satellites in the three main types of orbit (low, medium and high). Three touch screens allowed visitors to see which type of orbit was best for whatever you wanted your satellite to do, from weather monitoring to communication.
Then at the other end of the gallery was a section looking at the ways we explore space but without sending astronauts up there. We had a flight spare instrument from the Hubble Space Telescope and a beautiful full-size replica of the Huygens lander which carried out the most distant touch-down ever when it descended to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005. Also displayed here was the actual CHASE instrument, built in the UK, that was flown on the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1985 and measured the relative abundance of hydrogen and helium in the Sun in order to better understand the composition of our star.
The gallery once displayed another instrument flown on that Challenger mission: the Spacelab-2 X-ray Telescope. It had been one of my favourite exhibits as it showed the actual telescope, the science it did – generating the first high energy X-ray image of the centre of our galaxy the ‘Milky Way’ – but also the stories of the scientists (from the University of Birmingham) who devised, built and operated the telescope from the ground. People often ask how the museum gets its objects. Well, the X-ray telescope was the result of a phone call from one of its scientists saying there was no more room to store it. It might go to Australia but if not would be scrapped. I said, absolutely don’t scrap it. We’ll take it.
One change in the gallery was down to President George W. Bush of the United States. For many years, first in Exploration and then in Exploration of Space, we had shown a full-scale model of Apollo 11’s lunar module – ‘Eagle’. It had been built by a company at Pinewood Studios that had worked on the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever. My predecessor John Becklake ordered the model from them, along with a glass fibre ‘lunar’ surface. Over the years the model had started to age and the museum considered removing it to make way for a new exhibit. But then President Bush committed the US to going back to the Moon. This coincided with conservator colleague Ian Miles refurbishing ‘Eagle’ to make it as good as new. The result was impressive and even admired by astronaut Dave Scott – the same Scott who collected the Moon rock also on display in Exploring Space. Buzz Aldrin was also in favour but caused some anxiety among staff when he walked onto the model’s fibre glass lunar surface to pose for photographs.
People often ask what curators’ favourite objects are. It’s a difficult question to answer as there are usually too many to choose from. But space-wise, for me, it would be a two-way race between Apollo 10 (I mean – its been around the Moon!) and the Black Arrow rocket.
The Black Arrow programme launched four rockets between 1969 and 1971 – the last placing the UK’s Prospero satellite in orbit of the Earth. The 5th rocket built for the programme was never launched, and was acquired by the museum in 1972. It had been displayed on the floor in Exploration of Space. When the V2 missile in the same gallery was moved into the Making the Modern World gallery there was a vacant ceiling beam where Black Arrow rocket could be suspended. We worked with the original team that built the rocket as we also separated its stages for dramatic (and educational) effect. I got to know that rocket really well and through it a fascinating period of UK space history usually eclipsed by the domineering achievements of project Apollo.
That Black Arrow was built and test-fired on the beautiful Isle of Wight off the south coast of England also appealed. But the rocket represented the culmination of a story that stretched back to the end of World War 2 when German scientists were brought to the UK to work on the country’s own rocket programme. Through Black Arrow one can trace a story of the country’s postwar years, its challenges, priorities and – in the case of Black Arrow – abandoned expertise.
Later this year our new Space gallery will welcome some of those old friends from Exploring Space and be joined by a few newcomers. The timing is apt. Exploration of Space and Exploring Space were very much of the original space age where space endeavour was spectacular and the preserve of national governments.
We are now well into a second space age where private enterprise is ringing the changes and raising questions about the very nature of space exploration. After the heady days of the 1960s, space lost a little of its sheen and glamour. But it is now more important than ever. We cannot do without the satellites orbiting overhead.
Space really is back on the agenda.
Exploring Space will partially close from 16 May 2025. The north side of the gallery with lots of exciting space exhibits and objects will still be available to see, before the gallery fully closes on 2 June 2025 as part of preparations for a new Space gallery which will open in autumn 2025.