Space Expo Noordwijk
Keplerlaan 3
2201 AZ Noordwijk
Telephone: 071 - 20 01 400
Make Reservations here
www.space-expo.nl
open: Monday - Sunday
9.30 am - 6.00 pm
Today we go at Space Expo Noordwijk on a mission to space, together with the famous Dutch Astronaut André Kuipers & Science Reporter Sander Koenen. We have been to the Space Expo Museum before but now with covid everything is different. You have booked a timeslot.
When you arrive outside Space Expo it's fun right away, there is a big space capsule from the Ariane Rocket in front of the museum and there is a very unique playground. You report yourself at the entrace and once inside you step on a red or a blue dot (our dot is red). You follow your colour dot to a screen that counts down to lift off.
Then the doors open and your trip into space starts!
When you are through the double doors, the direction of walking is indicated on the floor with rockets. Follow the nose of the missiles and you will keep walking in the right direction. This way you will be guided through the museum at a safe distance from others.
In front of the screens you land always on your (in our case red) dot. On a safe distance on the blue spot stands another family. We watch and listen to the men on the screen, who can ask and tell us a lot about space missions.
André Kuipers is a Dutch astronaut of the European Space Agency ESA. He did two missions to the ISS (International Space Station) totaling 204 days. We are now on our way to a replica (model) of the real Space Station to see how astronauts lived there for months in space.
On the screens, Sander asks everything you would like to ask André. Such as: What is it like to live for months in such a small space with the other astronauts and what does it feel like to be weightless? What do you eat and drink in spacet and how do you shower, pee and sleep? What do astronauts actually do up there in that Space Station all day long?
And on your way to the Space Station you see besides the screens also real capsules, satelites and a Mars Rover Model. So cool!
You see the real Sojoez capsule with which André came back to Earth. On the screen he sits in this capsule and shows and tells you everything that happend during such a return. How it feeled and what he experienced in reality during the trip back to earth.
Then two pictures to give an impression of what you see walking through the museum space and what the atmosphere is like.
We bought the children's ticket for Puk including the Mission Toolkit. Then you can do experiments along the way and solve a puzzle with a secret code and with that you earn your personal Space Diploma and a unique Space Academy Astronaut Patch. Very nice!
Our first assignment is make a small plane according to the instructions on the screen and see how it reacts to gravity. What is happening? Awesome! The plane is made quickly and Puk has a lot of fun flying it!
Here you find a screen too with a super funny video about how you suck food and drinks from the air without gravity. Why it is that you can't take a shower, but how you can still stay clean when you're on the ISS for three months. How you're supposed to pee and sleep aboard a space station. Sleeping seems really uncomfortable, hanging in a sleeping bag in a small cubicle.
All videos are spoken in Dutch but subtitled in English and German. You can understand that British and German tourists often come here to see what it's like in space. We hear different languages all around us. When we get out of the space station we see André again, although made out of cardboard. Then the 1st Americans who set foot on the moon many years ago.
On the way to the exit we see a real moonstone, cast in a pyramid of resin. We see large rocket models from Lego and Playmobil, in display cases. There is also a modern space suit from the ESA with a modern sleeping bag in the background, a lot better than the old one in the ISS model! And funny!! The astronaut is sleeping on a stool here!
Then there is an old model Soyuz capsule, completely dented and burned by the atmosphere, with room for only 1 person. Brrr, creepy! And a large piece of moonstone with a do not touch sign. Then we look for a table to solve the puzzle and crack the secret code, our last assignment in the toolkit.
We go to the exit on the other side from the entrance to admit the secret code. There puk gets his personal Diploma and his Astronauts Patch. There is also a small display of souvenirs, because the shop is closed because of Covid19. After an hour we step outside again, seen a lot and learned a lot!
Outside again after the exit there is a large terrace with a Food Truck with delicious coffee, ice cream, toasts and poffertjes, for example. We sit in the sunshine under a parasol with coffee and ice cream. Puk choose a Space Kaleidoscoop as a souvenir and het plays with it for a while.
Then Puk has to climb, run and play in the awesome, wonderful playground for quite some time. It was a great space mission and now we are going home. We will save the Space Walk with hand and footprints of 13 international astronauts (in Noordwijk) for next time!