Space

Space Exhibit

SPACE: A JOURNEY TO OUR FUTURE is created to ignite your desire for discovery, sparking your imaginations and inspiring new generations of explorers to dream of the possibilities that lie ahead.

This extraordinary exhibit, which will tour major Science Centers around the country over four years, gives audiences an opportunity to experience our past explorations and future destiny in space. Visitors to the exhibit are reminded that only through dreaming and exploration can we truly begin to live as inhabitants of this universe in which we find ourselves adrift. SPACE reintroduces audiences to generations of dreamers and thinkers who have at times risked their lives to give us all a better understanding of who we are and how we fit into the universe around us. Most importantly, we will meet today’s explorers who continue to understand more about our planet and how to protect it and are on the forefront of the search for answers to our questions about the beginning of our universe and what life exists out there. The exhibit reminds each visitor that it is these unknown questions of our existence that make us all the same, inexorably tied together on this fragile, blue planet. And, through this exhibit, we realize once again that it is a moral imperative for us as the human race and as a planet to continue the search for the answers.

  • Touch the Moon and Mars–touch actual rocks from the lunar surface and the red planet
  • Explore a future Lunar Base camp as you walk through a full-size space habitat and work pod
  • Take a spin on a centrifuge that you power like a bicycle
  • Get an up-close look at a wide range of artifacts from the space program
  • Look far into the future of our exploration of the universe
  • Experience the past, present and future of space through these and dozens of other displays, interactives and experiences

3.8 million see “Space” at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, part of NASA’s 50th Anniversary celebration. Learn more


The exhibit explores themes from the space program:

Dare To Dream
Through the centuries countless dreamers who dared to find the answers to our very existence have shaped humankind’s knowledge of our place in the universe. This exhibit pays tribute to those dreamers and their amazing achievements and will start us on our own journey of discovery.

A Dream Come True
To this day we are still awed by the image of the Earth as seen from the Moon during the Apollo program. For the first time we saw our fragile place in the universe and we could not help but be changed forever. This exhibit will remind us of that remarkable achievement and introduce us to people who made that dream come true.

Living the Dream
This series of exhibits will open our eyes to the wonders of discovery that are taking place right now, all around us. Today, all over the world, people and organizations are creating and envisioning new tools and ideas that are helping us unlock many secrets to the Universe and that will propel us into our future adventures in Space. These people, and we as a planet, are truly living the dream!

Dream Of Tomorrow
The final portion of the exhibit will open our eyes to the wonders that our future holds, and introduce us to today’s dreamers who-like those before them-dare to imagine what secrets the Cosmos holds. Our journey into that future has many destinations and we will become true inhabitants of the universe if we continue to dream of tomorrow.

Brought to you by:
General Motors
Lockheed Martin

National promotional partners:
Cadillac
OnStar

Content Collaborators:
NASA
National Science Teachers Association

Appears Next At:
Ella Sharp Museum
Jackson, Michigan
January 27, 2024 – May 5, 2024

Wings Over the Rockies
Denver, Colorado
September 21, 2024 – April 13, 2025

Past Venues:
Pacific Science Center, Seattle, Washington
St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri
MOSI, Tampa, Florida
Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
The New Detroit Science Center, Detroit, Michigan
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina
Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana
Gail Borden, Elgin, Illinois (Dare to Dream)
Museo Tecnologico, Mexico City
Southeast Missouri Regional Museum, Cape Girardeau, Missouri (Dare to Dream)
Strategic Air and Space Museum, Ashland, Nebraska
Aerospace Museum of California, Sacramento, California (Dare to Dream)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.
Aerospace Museum of California, Sacramento, California
The University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, Texas
OMSI, Portland, Oregon
Sci-Quest Hands-on Science Center, Huntsville, Alabama
San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego, California
Springs Preserve, Las Vegas, Nevada
Reina Torres de Arauz Museum, Panama City, Panama
San Patricio Plaza, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT
Sloan Museum, Flint, MI
Da Vinci Science Center, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Space Center Houston, Houston, Texas
Gold Group, Portland ME
Planetario Alfa, Monterrey, Mexico
Gerald Ford Library and Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Museum of Idaho, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Cradle of Aviation. Garden City, New York
Bossard Library, Gallipolis, Ohio
National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio
Cranbrook Institute of Science, .Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Jackson, Mississippi