National Space Centre
 National Space Centre |
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 Location of National Space Centre in Leicester
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| Established | 2001 |
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| Location | Belgrave, Leicester |
| Coordinates | 52°39′13″N 1°07′56″W / 52.65369°N 1.13229°WCoordinates: 52°39′13″N 1°07′56″W / 52.65369°N 1.13229°W |
| Type | Space (and aerospace) museum |
| Website | National Space Centre |
The National Space Centre is a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. It is located on the north side the city of Leicester, England, next to the River Soar. Many of the exhibits, including upright rockets, are housed in a tower with minimal steel supports and a semi-transparent cladding of ETFE 'pillows' which has become one of Leicester's most recognisable landmarks.
The building was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, and it opened to the public on 30 June 2001. The tower is 42 m (138 ft) tall and claims to be the only place to house upright space rockets indoors.
The centre arose from a partnership between the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre and local government agencies. The total project cost was £52m, £26m of which came from a Millennium Commission grant, and the rest from private sector sponsors. It is run as an educational charity, and offers science workshops for school children of all ages.
The National Space Centre currently has post-doctoral science researchers based at the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre (SRC) and the University of Nottingham's Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy (IESSG).
The Centre has on display one of only three known Soyuz spacecraft in Western Europe (there is one in France at the Cité de l'espace and, in the United States, another Soyuz spacecraft is at the Smithsonian Institution as part of their Apollo-Soyuz Test Project display).
The centre has six main galleries of exhibits and visitor activities covering space flight, astronomy and cosmology. The attraction also includes a Digistar 3 dome cinema and planetarium, a gift shop and a restaurant. The restaurant is situated beneath the two nozzles of the Blue Streak and PGM-17 Thor rockets.
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