Set to open in autumn, a new gallery at the Science Museum will display objects from the first space age and the future of space exploration.
Opening in the Science Museum’s West Hall, a new gallery entitled Space will display iconic spacecraft and other objects used for space exploration.
The free gallery will explore stories of human achievement in space travel, alongside new technologies from the rapidly expanding UK space sector, on display for the first time.
Highlights will include two human-flown spacecraft displayed alongside one another for the first time, the radio headset used by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong and a three-billion-year-old piece of the moon, brought back to Earth by Apollo 15 crew.
Visitors will also be able to see new Magdrive propulsion systems that allow small satellites to easily manoeuvre while in orbit, a prototype Space Forge heat shield used to protect materials manufactured in orbit as they are transported to Earth and a Spire LEMUR2 nanosatellite used to provide weather information to climate scientists.
School visits
Bookings for educational visits to the Science Museum are open up to 27th March 2026. School groups can explore the free galleries and book additional activities including school shows such as It Takes Guts, a KS2 show loooking at the workings of the human digestive system; explore the gaming experience Power Up, featuring consoles and video games from the past 50 years; or watch an educational film in the IMAX cinema.
Key Stages 1, 3 and 4 can book themed visits focused on a particular topic or subject area which combine activities that work well together. Themed visits for KS1 cover materials, space and animals and humans. Space, design and engineering, health and genetics, and climate and the environment are among the focuses available for KS3-4 themed visits.
Schools will be able to explore the Space gallery as part of a self-led visit to the museum.
Other galleries at the museum that can be explored by pupils on a self-led visit include Making the Modern World, which charts 250 years of science and technology through objects like the Apollo 10 command module, Crick and Watson’s DNA model and the first Apple computer. Exhibits like Information Age look at more than 200 years of information and communication technology, and The Clockmakers’ Museum features the world’s oldest clock.
For more information about the Space gallery, go to www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/space.
Find out more about school visits to the Science Museum at www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/groups/formal-education-groups.
