CONCORD, NH – The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is now in its fourth year as an independent non-profit organization. Now operating on expanded summer hours, the Discovery Center is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week, from Friday June 17 to Labor Day.
Visitors this summer will be able to enjoy the Discovery Center’s new exhibit Eat Well, Play Well; permanent exhibits such as the shuttle landing simulator, planetary sciences gallery and vintage 1956 Crusader jet; daily planetarium shows every hour on the hour; summer camps for kids ages 5 – 14 and an astronomy club for older teens; solar viewing in the Center’s observatory; breakfast and lunch specials in the Center’s Countdown Café; and aviation- and space-related toys, books, games and memorabilia in the Center’s Science Store.
In addition, the Discovery Center will be open the first Friday night of each month this summer, with light dinners and snacks in the Countdown Café, presentation of the planetarium show Tonight’s Sky, viewing of a classic science fiction movie, and a look at stars, planets and more in the night sky from telescopes outside (courtesy the NH Astronomical Society) and in its observatory.
In preparation for the summer season, the Discovery Center upgraded key components of its planetarium technology, so that visitors will benefit from the Center’s increased capacity to deliver high-quality visuals while exploring the latest findings in astronomy and space science.
The Discovery Center’s Director of Education, Dr. Kim Duncan, is joining hands with Raytheon engineers this July and August to design the Center’s after school science and engineering club for middle schoolers.
Inspired by NASA Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe and her hero, Admiral Alan Shepard, the Discovery Center is committed to bringing the latest scientific findings to New Hampshire, through its exhibits, planetarium shows and educational programs. In this vein, the Discovery Center looks forward to bringing a special NASA exhibit on the Hubble Space Telescope to Concord this October, with a preview of what NASA scientists hope to find through deployment of the Hubble’s successor in 2018, the James Webb Telescope.
Board, staff and volunteers, including the Center’s newest board member, Chief Scientist Dr. Steve Davis of Physical Sciences Inc. in Andover MA, are hard at work putting together an exciting schedule of new exhibit and planetarium shows for 2017. Visitors and program participants can look forward to exhibits and planetarium shows on aviation, our dynamic Earth, meteors and more.
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center features 21st century interactive exhibits on aviation, astronomy, Earth and space sciences, a state-of-the-art planetarium and a variety of science, technology, and engineering and mathematics programs. The engaging, robust educational programs are geared towards families, teens, seniors, students, community groups and lifelong learners. For more information, visit www.starhop.com.
