Visiting the National Space Centre

We haven't visited the National Space Centre since before all the Covid lockdowns, so we thought it was about time we visited again. This time though, we asked our friend Wayne to come along with us, with his guide dog Liberty.

We decided to prebook our visit for Wednesday, 15th April as this was a designated quiet day, when there would be no schools visiting. I booked it online and we paid £40 in total for the four of us. This was £20 each for John and Wayne, and George and I went along for free as PAs. As George also has a disability, we could have paid £20 for him and he could have had a free PA go with him, or he could have gone along as a student for £20. It seemed easier to do it the way we did it though. There are various shows in the planetarium there too and we could select which one we wanted to see - we chose the Night Sky Tour. There is a £4 charge for parking and I chose to prepay that while I was doing the online booking.

At the entrance to the Space Centre there is a revolving door, with an accessible door immediately to the left of it. Liberty wasn't sure about the revolving door, so we used the accessible door. This door opens outwards and if you're standing right in front of it, it won't open - as we found out!

Once inside I showed the code I had received when I booked online, it was scanned and we were issued our ticket. As we had booked online we were told that this ticket was valid for a year. I was given a card with information on it telling me how to book to use this ticket to return.

When you're fully inside the Space Centre, you can see the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium straight in front of you. Around to the side of it you can see a bust of him. It looked very much like I remembered him on TV as a child, with the monocle in his right eye.

Carrying on a bit further, we came across a large model of the Earth. This was quite tactile as the sea felt smooth to the touch and the land felt rough. Nearby was an interactive floor, which looked like glaciers in the sea that were gradually melting. John enjoyed walking on that as the floor made sounds that made it sound like he was wading in the sea! Also nearby was a weather satellite and a room with interactive quiz screens, which heavily depended on having vision. There was also a small Snoopy astronaut toy on display in there too.

We continued to walk around and we saw quite a few other things including British astronaut Helen Sharman's seat used for launch and landing, which looked very uncomfortable and a toilet, which looked equally uncomfortable!

After we had looked at the exhibits in that part of the Space Centre, we headed back to the van to have the packed lunches we had brought with us. There is a cafe there, which was very busy when we walked past, but we brought our own just to save a bit of cash. After we had eaten, we headed back inside, remembering that the accessible door opened outwards, so we didn't get caught out again!

Once we were inside, we headed to the planetarium to see the Night Sky Tour show. The back row of seats were for wheelchair users and their companions, and we were seated on the row in front of that. This gave a little bit of space at the end of the row that enabled Liberty to lie down and not have people trip over her. There is no filming or photography allowed in the planetarium. The roof is dome shaped, and when sitting and looking up, it looked like I was looking at the night sky with no light pollution, so you could see all the stars. As the view moved to different planets and star systems, it almost felt like the seat I was sitting on was moving!

After the show had finished, we headed to the Rocket Tower. There is actually a rocket in there, that is pointing upwards. There are four floors in there and it was in there we learned about the British space programme, which officially began in 1952. We also learned about the history of rocketry and the story of the Space Race. John also took the opportunity to get a photo of himself as an astronaut!

Although Liberty was guiding Wayne, I still called out directions for him. Liberty is a highly trained guide dog, but she is not a mindreader, so Wayne needed to know the directions in order for him to tell Liberty which way to guide him. George guided John some of the time, until it got too uncomfortable and tiring for him, then I guided John. George tries to avoid using his wheelchair as often now, as he doesn't like being different from other young men of his age. I was also trying to get some video clips of the day for YouTube, so it was hard work for me too in some ways.

We spent around four hours at the Space Centre and, although a lot of it is very visual, we still made the most of it and had a really good day.

If you’d like to see what the day actually looked like for us, you can watch our YouTube video below.