National Space Centre

The National Space Centre stands beside the River Soar in Belgrave, Leicester. It is a museum and educational charity that also hosts a space research unit run with the University of Leicester. A tower clad in ETFE ‘pillows’ holds two upright rockets and has become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. Inside the main building a 7,200-square-metre steel-framed box houses six galleries, a planetarium and a spaceflight simulator. The site sits next to Space Park Leicester, a research campus that grew from the same partnership. The centre opened to the public in June 2001 after a £52 million build funded half by the Millennium Commission and the rest by Leicester City Council, the University of Leicester and corporate partners. In its first five months it welcomed 165,000 visitors and was named Museum of the Year by the Good Britain Guide 2002. More than sixty scientists once worked in the Space Science Research Unit on site. Visiting astronauts have included Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Helen Sharman, Buzz Aldrin and Tim Peake, who returned after his mission to meet schoolchildren. Visitors enter through a hall that displays a Soyuz spacecraft and a collection of spacesuits, including Tim Peake’s flight suit. The Rocket Tower lifts guests past the two upright rockets while panels tell the story of the space race. The galleries explore the universe, the solar system and planet Earth, with a TinyTarium for young children and a simulator that recreates the feeling of launch. Outside, the gravel roof of the main building is laid out in a crab nebula pattern.