Chabot Reopens With New NASA Exhibits

NASA officially landed in Oakland on Friday, where a new exhibition and partnership with the Chabot Space & Science Center aims to not only to educate, but inspire a new and diverse group of astronauts and aerospace engineers. Chabot Space & Science Center had been closed since the start of the pandemic, but its staff spent those 20 months working with NASA Ames to transform two older display rooms into one large exhibit area with several learning stations and more than 100 artifacts from NASA Ames’ Mountain View campus. Chabot’s transformation is funded in part by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The new displays include space suits worn by astronauts, scale models of various spacecraft that were tested in wind tunnels and a space station wrench. Other center renovations include significant updates to the museum’s layout, furniture, courtyard and signage to create a more welcoming museum experience. Teen-led science demonstrations, activities and video interviews by Chabot’s galaxy explorers engage visitors in NASA research and careers in space exploration.

NASA representatives and local politicians dedicated the NASA Ames Visitor Center and welcomed visitors including 30 Oakland schoolkids last week. Once the speeches and traditional ribbon-cuttings were said and done, the kids dove into a sand table filled with simulated moon soil, built mini versions of rovers and robots, and tested paper airplanes in a small wind tunnel.