The team at the National Space Centre has been successful in the latest round of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
The funding will help the award-winning educational charity cover vital costs associated with reopening after an extended lockdown period.
Chas Bishop, Chief Executive at the National Space Centre, said; “The whole team is looking forward to welcoming visitors through the doors again very soon, but this could not have happened without the support we have received. Recent funding has secured jobs, provided training and helped the Centre develop new infrastructure to create the very best visitor experience we can offer.”
Over £1 billion has been awarded to date from the Culture Recovery Fund, which has helped provide certainty to nearly 4,000 organisations and sites, protecting over 75,000 jobs across the country.
During the last 12 months the National Space Centre has focused on taking its mission online, supporting home learning and offering educational outreach to those individuals, families and groups in isolation due to the global pandemic.
They have hosted live sessions with astronauts, scientists, academics and TV personalities, including one of the only live sessions with returning SpaceX and NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. In addition the team has provided early years development sessions, astronomy nights and home education workshops, all online.
But, to ensure the safety of visitors and staff, the building has remained closed. This funding will help ensure that they can once again welcome visitors to the Centre during a period that sees a huge developing Space Park opening on their doorstep, a helicopter fly in Mars and humans plan to once again return to the Moon.