A film about the space shuttle ends with a majestic launch and rocket exhaust filling the screen. Suddenly, real-life fog envelops the theater, before the walls part and the haze dissipates to reveal a gasp-inducing 200-foot Space Shuttle Endeavour, nose up, facing skyward.
This Hollywood finish—Endeavour is the only authentic space shuttle presented with fuel tank and solid rocket boosters stacked for launch—is the centerpiece of the California Science Center’s new $450 million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which opens November 13 after more than three decades in the making.
More than 200 aerospace artifacts and interactive exhibits fill three airy, multilevel galleries that illustrate the history and physics of flight, space exploration, and autonomous craft. But it’s the spectacle of Endeavour that symbolizes the CSC’s mission as Southern California’s gateway drug to science. The air and space wing comes at a time when the state’s $366 billion space technology sector is desperate for more STEM talent in a region often regarded as the epicenter of the space startup economy.
“We want to be a feeder into all kinds of science, engineering, and STEM careers,” Jeffrey Rudolph, the CSC president and CEO, tells Fast Company. “Getting particularly young people, who may not have thought of themselves as belonging in science and engineering, interested and involved. Even if they don’t want to go into science, we think it’s good to have a basic understanding of it.”
“There’s a war on science going on in our country right now,” the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said during a press preview last month.
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