McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center honours the two New Hampshire space pioneers in its name: Christa McAuliffe, the Concord High School teacher killed in the Challenger disaster, and Alan Shepard, the first American in space. The centre combines a planetarium with a small but substantial science museum covering astronomy, astronautics, and Earth science. The planetarium shows are the main draw and run several times a day on a roster of full-dome films.

For families this is an easy half-day. The hands-on exhibits — orbital mechanics, scale-model rockets, an Apollo command module mock-up — work well for kids of mixed ages, and the staff astronomers are happy to talk at length. The replica Redstone rocket out front, modelled on the one that lifted Shepard into space, is hard to miss from the parkway and is a popular photo stop.

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A story
Christa McAuliffe, a Concord High School social studies teacher, was selected from over 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space. She died with the rest of the Challenger crew when the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch on 28 January 1986. Alan Shepard, the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the moon, was born just east of Concord at Derry.