The spacesuit worn by the first Briton in space, the Russian capsule that brought Britain’s first professional astronaut back to Earth, and the only flown-to-the-moon Apollo command module to be on display outside of the United States will soon be on the move in the United Kingdom.
The Science Museum in London has announced it is closing its “Exploring Space” gallery, which for almost 40 years has shown tens of millions of people how “humanity has ventured into orbit, traveled to the moon and explored the solar system and beyond.” The gallery is undergoing a four-month phased shutdown, as its contents join other artifacts in the museum’s new “Space” gallery, opening later this year.
“Space ignites an interest in science and technology in many people, including me,” Libby Jackson, former head of space exploration for the UK Space Agency and newly named head of space at the Science Museum, said in a statement. “The Science Museum’s space gallery has been a touchstone through my life, from my earliest visits as a child and lunch breaks as an Imperial College student to celebrating Tim Peake‘s launch with thousands of school children and family visits.”
The public has until April 22 to see the Exploring Space gallery before parts of it are taken off display. Already, the Sokol spacesuit worn by the first British citizen to fly into space, Helen Sharman, has been removed to undergo conservation work ahead of its display in the new Space gallery. Sharman wore the garment for her 1991 mission to the Soviet/Russian space station Mir.
The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that returned U.K. astronaut Tim Peake from the International Space Station in 2016 and a surviving example of the British-built and -launched Black Arrow rocket are also leaving exhibit, as are displays of a U.S. Scout rocket; an RL-10 rocket engine, which helped to send spacecraft to every planet in the solar system; and a J-2 rocket engine like the type that powered the upper stages of the Apollo Saturn V moon rocket.
From April 23 until June 2, visitors will still able to view examples of space food and a microgravity toilet, a suspended model of the Hubble Space Telescope and full-size replicas of the U.K.’s Beagle 2 Mars lander, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Huygens Titan lander and NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar module “Eagle,” which delivered astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the lunar surface in 1969.
Space artifacts elsewhere in the museum include a full-size telecommunications satellite, Eurostar 3000; one of the first GPS receivers; a Raspberry Pi computer that was used on the International Space Station; a satellite-based scientific instrument that precisely measures sea surface temperatures; and several scale models of satellites and spacecraft.
After the Exploring Space gallery closes, the museum’s most famous space object, the Apollo 10 command module that flew on a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing, will be carefully moved to the West Hall for its display in the new Space gallery. On loan from the Smithsonian, the spacecraft carried astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan on an eight-day journey that did everything but touch down on the moon.
In its new exhibit opening in the fall, the Apollo 10 command module, named “Charlie Brown,” will be positioned next to the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule, offering a rare opportunity to see U.S. and Russian crewed spacecraft side by side.
The Space gallery will also exhibit a full-size testing model of BepiColombo, a spacecraft that launched in 2018 and will arrive at planet Mercury next year as part of an ESA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) joint mission. Visitors will also be able to see Magdrive propulsion systems that enable small satellite to move while in orbit; a prototype Space Forge heat shield, which protects materials manufactured in orbit as they are returned to Earth; and a Spire LEMUR2 nano-satellite used to provide weather information to climate scientists.
According to its leadership, the Science Museum Group intends to make “significant additions” to its space collection over the course of the next five years to ensure that international efforts in space exploration are better represented in its holdings and in future displays in the museum.
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