{"id":43581,"date":"2025-11-21T00:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-electron-among-first-artifacts-installed-in-ca-science-center-space-gallery\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T00:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:05:06","slug":"rocket-lab-electron-among-first-artifacts-installed-in-ca-science-center-space-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-electron-among-first-artifacts-installed-in-ca-science-center-space-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab Electron among first artifacts installed in CA Science Center space gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took the California Science Center more than three years to erect its new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, including stacking NASA\u2019s space shuttle Endeavour<\/em> for its launch pad-like display.<\/p>\n

Now the big work begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s completing the artifact installation and then installing the exhibits,\u201d said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center in Los Angeles, in an interview. \u201cMost of the exhibits are in fabrication in shops around the country and audio-visual production is underway. We\u2019re full-on focused on exhibits now.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the science center is marking the addition of the first artifacts to the Kent Kresa Space Gallery. Named for the former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and former chairman of General Motors, the completed gallery will complement the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery (featuring Endeavour<\/em>) with three areas devoted to the themes of \u201cRocket Science,\u201d \u201cRobots in Space,\u201d and \u201cHumans in Space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in place are a space shuttle main engine (SSME), a walk-through segment of a shuttle solid rocket booster, and a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.<\/p>\n

Erecting Electron<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing we have put in\u2014other than the space shuttle\u2014was the Electron, which we think is really significant,\u201d said Rudolph. \u201cWe\u2019re really happy to show next-generation technologies from startup companies with new launch vehicles, particularly if the company is based in California. Our goal is to inspire and motivate the next generation, and we think that showing folks that there are still a lot of innovative things going on, happening in their backyard, is a really great opportunity to inspire kids and people of all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n California Science Center<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Founded in New Zealand in 2006 and now based in Long Beach, Rocket Lab developed the Electron as the first carbon-composite launch vehicle intended to service the small satellite market. It was also the first orbital-class rocket to use electric pump-fed engines. Having now flown 75 successful missions (including five suborbital flights), the Electron is the third most-launched small-lift rocket in history.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201csmall\u201d can be relative. At 59 feet tall (18 meters), one floor of the Kresa gallery was not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Electron rocket is actually at the center of a staircase, a section which is open all the way from level two, where you enter, to the lower level, which is 25 feet (7.6 meters) below. The Electron is standing up in that opening and it pretty much fills the whole thing,\u201d said Rudolph.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

What goes up\u2026<\/h2>\n

The SSME and solid rocket segment are located on the second floor in the section devoted to \u201cRocket Science\u201d about how we get things off the planet.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Spacecraft<\/p>\n

A walk-through solid rocket booster segment and a space shuttle main engine were the first artifacts installed in the \u201cRocket Science\u201d section of the new Kent Kresa Space Gallery in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n California Science Center<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Other space artifacts moving over from the California Science Center\u2019s main building or the former Samuel Oschin Endeavour Display Pavilion include NASA\u2019s Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) capsule, the Gemini 11 spacecraft, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) command module. There is also a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule that resupplied the International Space Station three times and a Spacehab logistics module that flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be adding a number of other spacecraft to that,\u201d Rudolph told collectSPACE. \u201cMost of those are mockups or engineering models, because most of the time, once we send something into space, we don\u2019t get it back to put into a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the space artifacts, about 100 exhibits will be added, which will add context to the spacecraft and other hardware visitors will see.<\/p>\n

The same can be said for the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, which will showcase 20 aircraft in three areas: \u201cLearning to Fly,\u201d \u201cEveryday Flight,\u201d and \u201cAdvanced Aviation.\u201d The first to be installed, a Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.4 jet-powered strike aircraft, landed in that latter section in September.<\/p>\n

Shuttle under wraps<\/h2>\n

Probably the most-anticipated artifact, the space shuttle Endeavour<\/em>, is purposely being kept out of sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solid rocket boosters and external tank are pretty much unwrapped,\u201d said Rudolph, referring to the protective covering and scaffolding that surrounded the components during their stacking in early 2024. \u201cEndeavour<\/em> remains wrapped. The contractor is still doing a little bit of finishing work, and so we\u2019re waiting until it\u2019s all done before we take away the protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they finish all of the work above and around the shuttle, we will then take off the protection and open one of the payload bay doors so you will be able to look inside. We then have to build out a little more of the platforms that will get you close access to the orbiter,\u201d Rudolph said.<\/p>\n

Despite, or maybe because of, all of the work still to be done, an opening date for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center has yet to be set.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll announce the date for the opening when we know we\u2019ll be ready to open,\u201d said Rudolph. \u201cWhen we are ready, though, everyone will know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took the California Science Center more than three years to erect its new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, including stacking NASA\u2019s space shuttle Endeavour for its launch pad-like display. Now the big work begins. \u201cThat\u2019s completing the artifact installation and then installing the exhibits,\u201d said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}