National Space Centre

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As Douglas Adams wrote

Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

When you think of space, probably the last place you would think of would be Leicester, I think Douglas Adams would quite like the idea that the UK’s National Space Centre is located on the edge of the city in an industrial estate.

But that’s where it is, for one thing this makes it fairly accessible for many of us. My eldest being space mad and planning to be the first Human on Mars, this seemed like an ideal detour on the way back to Manchester from our trip to London and Oxford.

National Space Centre

Once we arrived the carpark was fairly full hit there was room for us to park up and pay the resonable £3, a quick walk to the centre and we paid the entrance fee that would allow us to return for a year.

  • Adult £15.00
  • Child (5-16) £12.00
  • Concessions £12.00
  • Under 5 FREE

Now these kinds of places can be hit or miss with parents and kids alike, too often we find broken displays or lack luster display. But we where very pleasantly surprised to walk into a building where it was clear loads of effort had been made to make the whole experience entertaining, informative and enjoyable.

As a Dad of both a 9 year old and a 1 year old I am always on the look out for different things to keep both of them happy. I was not disappointed, the visual effects and displays kept the little one entertained as he looked around, the interactive sections made for hours of fun for the eldest.

National Space Centre 2

The highlights had to be the scale model of the Columbia Module in the ISS, Alfie spent a good hour roleplaying in there, the Astronaut training centre and the planetarium, where we saw a fantastic Apollo Story.

Fro a practical point, the baby changing facilities where top notch, the staff where accomodating and helpful and the cafe was reasonably priced for decent food.

Overall this was one of the better days out we have done over the years and we will be making the trip again soon.

More information can be found at the National Space Centre website.