space

During the preparations for our landmark exhibition, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, we reunited Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman, with her spacesuit around a quarter of a century after she first wore it for her pioneering mission to the Mir space station. Helen’s journey began in 1989 when she, then a food technologist, answered an advertisement that she had heard on her car radio:  “Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary.” With Timothy Mace, she was eventually selected from over 13,000 […]

Forty years ago today (17 July) the Soviet Union and the United States shook hands in space during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Curator Doug Millard explains more.

Curator Ali Boyle and Press Officer Will Stanley reflect on our most distant (dwarf) planet, Pluto.

A few months ahead of the launch of the museum’s pioneering Cosmonauts space exhibition, the UK Space Agency has published its first National Strategy for Space Environments and Human Spaceflight.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has told hundreds of young visitors to the Science Museum of his strong belief that extraterrestrial life will be found.

Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot, reflects on the importance of Asteroid Day.

As Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov celebrates his birthday (30 May), Roger Highfield, Director of External Affairs, spent a day with pioneering cosmonaut for the launch of Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age.

Half a century after he risked his life to become the first person to go on a spacewalk, Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov today joined Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford to announce the museum’s most ambitious temporary exhibition to date, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, supported by BP. Tickets are now on sale for the exhibition, which opens on 18 September 2015 and will feature the greatest collection of Soviet spacecraft and artefacts ever assembled in once place, including eight that had […]

Curator Doug Millard reflects on a new acquisition from NASA’s Apollo 10 mission.

On Friday 20 March, a solar eclipse will be visible across the UK (and Europe, parts of Asia and Africa). It’s the last chance to watch a solar eclipse in Europe until 2026.

A guest post from Kate Campbell-Payne, Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

World-renowned director and blockbuster auteur Christopher Nolan visited the Science Museum last night for a special screening of his latest acclaimed feature, Interstellar, in our IMAX Theatre. He was joined by the film’s editor Lee Smith, visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema for an exclusive Q&A with BAFTA members hosted by writer and journalist Mark Salisbury. The Science Museum IMAX is one of only four screens in the UK to show Interstellar in Nolan’s intended 70mm IMAX format, with one of […]