Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
Snapshot
Location: Los Angeles, California
Size: 200,000 sf expansion
Budget: $400,000,000
Open: Construction underway, opening date TBD
Story
Construction is underway on the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a 200,000 square foot addition to the California Science Center’s main building. This final phase of a 30-year master plan will include a diverse collection of aircraft and spacecraft, immersive experiences, and signature hands-on educational exhibits that encourage active learning through discovery.
The centerpiece of the project will be Space Shuttle Endeavour, an awe-inspiring sight, towering 200 feet tall in vertical, “ready for launch” configuration. It will be the only place in the world to see a complete Space Shuttle system with authentic flight hardware, including the Endeavour orbiter vehicle mated to real solid rocket boosters and its external fuel tank.
Other exhibits include the SPACEHAB, flown Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules, a SpaceX Dragon capsule, a theater in the front portion of a 747 airplane, plus 30 major artifacts and more than 120 other artifacts to immerse visitors in the real scientific tools that help us explore “to infinity and beyond.”
Following up on Barbara Punt’s success as exhibits project manager for Phase I and project director for Phase II, Punt Consulting Group was hired for Phase III to tackle the exhibit project management. As one of only a handful of people to work on all three phases, Barbara is immensely proud of the California Science Center’s achievement and is looking forward to digging in deeper as the project continues.