Image: Sokol KV-2 rescue suit worn by Helen Sharman, 1991 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Science Museum confirms Space gallery opens 20 September 2025, displaying Helen Sharman’s spacesuit, Apollo 10 command module and UK space technology.
The Science Museum has announced that its new Space gallery will open on Saturday 20 September 2025, featuring historic space objects and prototypes.
The gallery will display Helen Sharman’s Sokol KV2 spacesuit for the first time following conservation work. The 10kg suit required 54 specific measurements and was worn by Britain’s first astronaut during the riskiest parts of her 1991 mission to Mir Space Station.
Space will feature the Soyuz TMA-19M Descent Module that transported Tim Peake to and from the International Space Station, covering 74,000,000 miles in orbit. The capsule will display scorched marks from re-entry, with its 25m-wide parachute suspended above the gallery.
The Apollo 10 command module, which orbited the Moon in 1969 as the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11, will be displayed alongside the Soyuz spacecraft. Apollo 10 remains the fastest ever crewed vehicle, exceeding 24,790 mph on its return to Earth. Neil Armstrong’s radio headset from Apollo 11 will also be on display.
A three-billion-year-old Moon rock sample from Great Scott, one of the largest rocks collected during Apollo 15, will form a focal point. The rock lay on the lunar surface for approximately 80 million years before collection.
The gallery will feature UK space sector technology, including Magdrive propulsion system prototypes developed during the COVID-19 lockdown and Space Forge’s reusable Pridwen heat shield. The LEV-2 Moon rover, developed through collaboration between JAXA and Takara Tomy, will be displayed in the UK for the first time.
Additional exhibits include an RL10 rocket engine, which has launched spacecraft to every planet in the Solar System since 1963, and the full-size BepiColombo testing model ahead of the spacecraft’s 2026 arrival at Mercury.
Science Museum outlines plans for three new galleries to 2030
Space is the first of three new free galleries that will provide almost 3,500m² of public gallery space on the museum’s ground floor. Tomorrow: The Bennett Gallery is expected to open in early 2027.
