Destination Space
A national programme celebrating the achievements of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake and the wonders of human spaceflight.
Destination Space is a national STEM programme funded by the UK Space Agency, to engage, inspire and involve families with school-age children, school groups and communities across the UK with the amazing stories, science and achievements of human spaceflight, as part of a national celebration of Tim Peake's Principia mission.
ASDC and partners created, developed and delivered an excellent set of science engagement equipment along with a suite of activities including an interactive hands-on family show, three curriculum-linked STEM workshops for schools, a series of ‘meet the expert’ activities and special event and branding materials. ASDC then selected, equipped and trained 20 UK science centres to deliver the full Destination Space programme to inspire people across the nation with Tim Peake’s mission.
The families programme of Destination Space launched in the October half term 2015, followed by the schools programme in January 2016. Delivery continued in the science centres until January 20th 2017 with many centres saying they will continue to engage their audiences with both the public and schools programme into the future.
Overall 733,017 children and adults have participated in Destination Space, taking part in the school workshops, family shows or at events to celebrate Tim Peake’s launch into space and safe return. Of these, 100,244 were school students who had been brought by teachers to science centres to take part in specific curriculum-linked schools’ workshops. Overall, 75,741 people met and spoke with a space scientist or engineer through the special meet the expert events, helping to showcase the types of careers that are possible with science.
The programme was supported online via the Destination Space website:
The programme completed in January 2016 and a final project report was submitted to the UK Space Agency. The final report is available here.
Below are the 20 centres across the UK who took part in this programme:
- Aberdeen Science Centre
- At-Bristol Science Centre
- Cambridge Science Centre
- Centre for Life
- Dundee Science Centre
- Dynamic Earth
- The Eden Project
- Eureka! The National Children's Museum
- Glasgow Science Centre
- Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
- The National Space Centre
- Royal Observatory Greenwich
- Science Museum
- Techniquest
- Techniquest Glyndwr
- The Observatory Science Centre
- Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museums
- W5 Interactive Discovery Centre
- Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium
- World Museum, Liverpool Museums
For more details on continuing destination space programmes, please contact your nearest participating centre
