A film introduced the Endeavour’s journey from start to final launch as smoke billowed in mysterious clouds. When the haze dissipated, the newest, grand addition to the Science Center was revealed: the spaceship in its vertical, full form.
The film about Endeavour’s final launch into space played at a media preview Wednesday, before a movie screen revealed the space shuttle in its launch position.
The complete shuttle system, which was the final orbiter constructed in NASA’s shuttle program with 25 missions, stands at about 200 feet tall and 80 feet wide. The Endeavour represents both the past and the future of space exploration and what is possible in scientific achievement.
The California Science Center’s new exhibit, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, will open in November and features 100 interactive artifacts and displays alongside Endeavour. Each exhibit answered fundamental questions in the development of space and flight research, from how a plane flies to how robots explore planets.
In a “shuttleside chat” with Science Center President and CEO Jeffery Rudolph, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that when he brought his 10-year-old son, Dutch Newsom, before the preview, he began to cry watching his child’s awe when he first saw the Endeavour.
“Once the mind is stretched, it never goes back to its original form,” Newsom said.
The exhibit includes videos that transport viewers into shuttle launches, touch screens that assign visitors to roles in a space orbit and a slide down to the feet of the Endeavour space shuttle, providing museum-goers with the opportunity to better understand California’s role in space.
In an introductory speech, Curator of Aerospace Science Ken Phillips said the exhibit is meant to surprise visitors and remind them that nobody is excluded from being a part of scientific research and discovery.
“It’s about helping us understand who we are and where we are, [and] appreciate the things we can do technologically,” Phillips said. “It’s inspiration. Hopefully, it’s transformational. And above all, it’s invitational because we’re hoping people who haven’t had this experience will convince themselves, surprise themselves, there is a role for them.”
Collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, added direct experiences from JPL experts to the exhibition with a strong emphasis on inspiring the next generation to explore STEM careers and research. Many of the technologies on display were developed from Caltech and JPL discoveries with NASA.
Steven Lee, deputy project manager at JPL, said he hopes the exhibit will encourage those in college to intern with NASA’s JPL team, where previous interns have helped drive rovers and develop technologies in NASA’s Mars Yard, an outdoor testing and simulation facility.
Moogega Cooper, a group supervisor at JPL and planetary protection lead for the Mars 2020 mission, said Carl Sagan, an astronomer and planetary scientist, inspired her to pursue STEM. She added that science exploration was her “north star” growing up.
“I hope kids out there can see this and their own circumstances as part of a bigger picture that is beyond even ourselves,” Cooper said.
Phillips, also a USC adjunct professor of the practice of physics and astronomy, has taught a freshman seminar called “The Space Shuttle and Our Place in the Universe.”
Phillips said he structured much of the class around the space exploration studies on display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, and in fact some of his students helped to prototype interactive displays in the museum.
Collaborating with a physics student, two chemical engineering students, an industrial engineering student and a student from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Phillips said the team created a five-player game where visitors facilitate a mission to the moon on a touch screen display.
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center opens to the public November 13. It is free to all visitors, and advance reservations are available online.
Edited by Sean Campbell and Caitlin Roehmholdt.