Artifact placement and exhibit fabrication are expected to continue for months
The California Science Center has begun installing major artifacts inside its nearly completed Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center wing, marking the first objects placed in the new Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
Workers this week positioned a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, a segment of a Space Shuttle solid rocket booster and a Space Shuttle main engine inside the gallery, the museum announced Tuesday. The 20-story addition to the Exposition Park campus is slated to house the retired shuttle Endeavour in a vertical “launch-ready” display alongside roughly 100 other aircraft and spacecraft.
Construction of the 200,000-square-foot building is described as “almost complete”. Artifact placement and exhibit fabrication are expected to continue for months.
The new wing, which will nearly double the museum’s exhibit space, has so far cost $380 million of a $450 million budget, funded largely by private donations and state money.
A brief ceremony Tuesday featured remarks from California Science Center president Jeffrey Rudolph, donor Kent Kresa and Rocket Lab chief financial officer Adam Spice. The Electron rocket on display was provided by the Long Beach-based launch company.
When finished, the air and space center will remain free to the public, consistent with the science center’s existing admission policy.
