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With its real life spacecraft and other wildly impressive extraterrestrial paraphernalia, the Science Museum is about as close as you can get to going to actual space without leaving Zone One.
And your proximity to the cosmos is about to increase a heck of a lot with the imminent launch of Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience, a 40-minute free-roaming VR experience that will take you into the deepest and most spectacular parts of the galaxy.
And not just in a ‘lurid CGI slop’ way – as the name suggests, the experience (which recently debuted in Washington DC) has been developed in tandem with the US’s flagship Smithsonian Museum and its Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. So while the literally otherworldly scenes of space you find yourself stepping into are digitally crafted, they’re meticulously crafted on the backs of decades of real scientific data.
What happens in it? Your journey starts off with a tour of our world’s observatories before heading up to the Hubble Space Telescope… and then far beyond. Diving headlong into the cosmos – we’re told you will ‘witness the birth and death of stars, explore distant galaxies, and come face-to-face with a black hole’.
It all sounds pretty stunning, and as with other Science Museum special experiences like the Wonderlab and the IMAX, you will have to pay for it: prices are TBC but will be revealed on June 9 when it goes on sale for a June 26 start with what we’re assuming is an open-ended run. Clearly it’ll have a lot of appeal for kids: the age advice is 10-plus. See you in space!
Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience starts Jun 26 at the Science Museum.
One of London’s most iconic abandoned tube stations is opening for family tours this summer.