The free event marks the very first satellite launch from UK soil, which will take place from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay later this year. To celebrate this historic event, the life size rocket replica will be placed in the heart of London’s home of arts and science, on South Kensington’s Exhibition Road and will be supported by a range of hands-on educational activities and demonstrations to inspire and engage young people about space and the career opportunities in the sector.
All activities will be free and hosted by the UK Space Agency (who are leading the event and who lead the Government’s Spaceflight programme), Spaceport Cornwall (where the first satellite launch will take place later this year), Virgin Orbit (whose rocket will launch from Spaceport Cornwall) together with the Science Museum, Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum.
Visitors can expect a range of thrilling activities, from trying on real astronaut suits to touching a piece of moon rock! There will be a chance to discover more about some of the mysteries of space and to take a look at some extraordinary space rocks that will be on display. There will also be a chance to ask what life could look like in other parts of the universe?
The LEGO® Group and the Natural History Museum, invite you to use your imagination to build LEGO® Life Forms for extraterrestrial environments (1.30 - 4.30pm Saturday & 11am - 4pm Sunday)! As well as this, visitors will be able to get hands-on with the Natural History Museum’s examples of extra-furrestiral animals who have been on all kinds of out of this world space missions.
There will be opportunities to get to meet space scientists and engineers from Virgin Orbit who are there to discuss everything there is to know about the upcoming launch. Inside at the Natural History Museum, you can join a free Women in Science Tour: Space and discover the fascinating work of women scientists – past and present – who have focused on space, meteorites and planetary materials.
Come and get stuck into the Science Museum’s workshops where you can fashion your own super-galactic mission patch to represent your journey to space or come and see how you would communicate with aliens who don’t understand human language with the help of The Voyager spacecraft. There will be demos showing visitors why we need a space suit to survive and how astronauts can recycle water in space.
Imperial College London’s Space Lab team will be on hand on Saturday to show you the next generation of rocket engines and a chance to make your own clouds as well as find out about the clouds you can expect to see before, during and after a rocket launch!
On Sunday, find out from Imperial scientists which missions send a human into space or instead, a robot; explore the different jobs on a space mission and try your hand at some mineral processing as scientists demonstrate, for example, how to turn space rocks into oxygen in metals in order to support future space travel.
The Spaceport Cornwall, will be offering an exciting opportunity to try on VR headsets and experience a life-like space launch, or help out in the Mission Control.
All events are free to attend and will be open to the public between 1pm-6pm on Saturday 15th October and from 11am-4pm on Sunday 16th October. No prebooking is required to attend. Please do come along!
LEGO® Life Forms with the Natural History Museum
