It took more than three years for the California Science Center to build its new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which also included stacking NASA’s space shuttles. Attempt For its launch pad-like display.
Now the big work begins.
“It’s completing the installation of the artifacts and then installing the exhibits,” Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center in Los Angeles, said in an interview. “Most of the exhibits are in construction in stores across the country and audio-visual production is underway. We are now focusing completely on the exhibits.”
On Tuesday, the Science Center is celebrating the addition of the first artifacts to the Kent Cressa Space Gallery. Named for the former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and former chairman of General Motors, the entire gallery will complement the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery (featuring Attempt) with three areas dedicated to the topics “Rocket Science,” “Robots in Space,” and “Humans in Space.”
Now present are a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), a walk-through section of a Shuttle solid rocket booster, and a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
raising the electron
“The biggest thing we’ve put in place besides the space shuttle is Electron, which we think is really important,” Rudolph said. “We’re really happy to showcase the next generation of technologies from startup companies with new launch vehicles, especially if the company is based in California. Our goal is to inspire and motivate the next generation, and we think showing people that there are still a lot of innovative things happening in their backyard is a great opportunity to inspire kids and people of all ages.”
Credit: California Science Center
Founded in New Zealand in 2006 and now based in Long Beach, Rocket Lab developed the Electron as the first carbon-composite launch vehicle intended to serve the small satellite market. It was also the first orbital-class rocket to use an electric pump-fed engine. Having flown 75 successful missions to date (including five suborbital flights), Electron is the third most launched short-lift rocket in history.
Of course, “small” may be relative. One floor of the 59 feet high (18 m) Cressa Gallery was not enough.
“The Electron rocket is actually in the center of a staircase, a section that’s open all the way from level two, where you enter, to the lower level, which is 25 feet (7.6 meters) down. The Electron is standing in that opening and it completely fills the whole thing,” Rudolph said.