Everything you need to know about the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

It’s come a long way since it first opened

There it is, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. On the right, that big orb is the observatory. (JON BODELL / Insider staff) -
There it is, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. On the right, that big orb is the observatory. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)
Here is one of the Discovery Center's biggest attractions, the XF8U-2 Crusader jet. This particular jet was tested by famous Derry astronaut Alan Shepard. (JON BODELL / Insider staff) -
Here is one of the Discovery Center's biggest attractions, the XF8U-2 Crusader jet. This particular jet was tested by famous Derry astronaut Alan Shepard. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)
The Discovery Center has an exhibit all about the light spectrum. Here I am – in infrared form – taking a picture of myself. Looks like my forearms were pretty hot at the time of this photo. (JON BODELL / Insider staff) -
The Discovery Center has an exhibit all about the light spectrum. Here I am – in infrared form – taking a picture of myself. Looks like my forearms were pretty hot at the time of this photo. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)
A 1/250 scale model of the Challenger hangs upside down. (TIM GOODWIN / Insider staff) -
A 1/250 scale model of the Challenger hangs upside down. (TIM GOODWIN / Insider staff)

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, we decided to do an issue all about the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, the museum that bears the name of Concord High School teacher Christa McAuliffe, who tragically perished in the explosion.

We figured we’d go down there and see what was going on and what they had to offer. But it occurred to us that maybe some of you don’t know about the Discovery Center at all. It’d be pretty pointless to do a whole issue around a place you’ve never heard of or don’t know anything about.

Luckily, Executive Director Jeanne Gerulskis was nice enough to give us some of her time to tell us all about the center – how and why it started, how it’s grown, what its purpose is, what they do there.

And boy, did she have a lot to say.

It all started Jan. 28, 1986.

“When the Challenger mission did not go as planned, the people of New Hampshire were devastated,” Gerulskis said. “So their representatives, the Legislature, wanted to do something to honor Christa McAuliffe.”

After the Legislature asked the public for input, a teacher in Northwood, Louise Wiley, came up with the idea to create a planetarium. McAuliffe was always known as the “field trip teacher,” and she also felt that everybody should learn as much as they could about space, because space was the future. The combination of the love of field trips and space led to the idea of a planetarium.

Before long, a state agency was created for the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, as was a private nonprofit set up to help fundraise for it.

The original planetarium – which was just a planetarium with a lobby – was built in 1990 with state funds and private-sector donations, including the planetarium theater itself and some of the computer equipment.

At first, the thought was that only about three staffers would be needed and that a few people would come by every so often. Turns out they had seriously underestimated the interest.

“It was designed in a way that didn’t really accommodate the amount of people that would come through,” Gerulskis said.

So in 1997, it was expanded by about 1,500 square feet – a gift shop was added to “help with the revenue stream” and a program room was put in for the kids to eat lunch in.

Alan Shepard, renowned test pilot-turned super-famous astronaut from Derry, died in 1998. The powers that be felt that the state should honor Shepard for his contributions. And so ideas bounced around until it was decided that he ought to be honored with a museum at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium. It was to be called the Alan B. Shepard Discovery Center at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Clunky name or not, it was good enough for NASA and BAE Systems, among other deep-pocketed donors, to kick in a few bucks to get the place up and running. In the end, a mix of state, federal and private funds went into creating the new center.

“In 2001, we became the official state memorial to Alan Shepard as well as Christa McAuliffe, but it took all those years to raise the funds and get to the right place to where we could open this museum, so we broke ground on the new museum in 2007 and opened to the public on March 6 of 2009,” Gerulskis said.

The original mission was to cover astronomy and space science, but “we enlarged it to include aviation and earth science,” Gerulskis said. “Aviation because that’s how flight started, and also because including Alan Shepard, we wanted to cover his career as a test pilot, which then brought him to the place where he could become the first American astronaut.”

Gerulskis was a tiny bit nervous at first. She wondered whether adding Alan Shepard to McAuliffe’s memorial would offend McAuliffe’s family, as though her role were being diminished by making her share space with someone else.

“So I called her mom and talked to her about it,” Gerulskis said. “And she said, ‘No, that sounds wonderful, Alan Shepard was Christa’s hero. That was part of her inspiration to become a teacher in space.’ ”

A little name-shortening later and the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center was up and running.

The building was designed to create an atmosphere of air and space. And the designers really succeeded – the main area is wide open, save for a humongous jet, with sky-high glass ceilings and a tall wall of windows that comes to a point at the top.

That jet is something of a centerpiece at the Discovery Center – Gerulskis said it’s a popular spot for White House hopefuls and their cronies to hold town hall meetings and other events.

It’s an XF8U-2 Crusader jet, known as “The Last Gunfighter” because it was the last military jet designed with machine guns as the primary weapon. Though you won’t see those guns on this one – something about safety.

Why it’s there is because Shepard tested it. And testing this jet took a lot of guts – it’s a one-seater, so there’s no room for an instructor to walk you through the process. You pretty much have to figure it out on the first go, so Shepard must have had some idea of what he was doing up there.

But the jet isn’t the only attraction. There’s also, obviously, the planetarium. The attraction that started it all is still there, and better than ever, what with new projectors, some new seats and new software. Shows run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

There’s the flight simulator, which lets you take a crack at flying a space ship. Then there’s the lunar lander simulator, which does what you’d imagine it does. There’s a little weather center, complete with green screen and teleprompter, where you can try doing a weather report and then watch it right after. There’s a cool infrared station where you can see your heat signature (see photo at left). And there is also a pretty sweet observatory.

The observatory has a huge telescope that can see millions of light years away – which is apparently pretty far – as well as a smaller telescope meant specifically for looking at the sun. You wouldn’t normally want to look directly at the sun, especially magnified by about a million percent, but this telescope has special filters inside that only allow non-dangerous light through. What you see is a deep red orb.

The whole thing is capable of rotating 360 degrees, so you can lock on to a star or planet and just track it across the sky as the world turns. It also creates a tricky echo that makes you think cars are bombing down the highway right behind your head. It’s a cool experience to say the least.

You can go check it out whenever the weather cooperates – after all, it’s tough to look at things millions of light years away when clouds are all that can be seen.

And, if you work up an appetite after hours of exploring the universe (and the Discovery Center), you can grab a bite to eat at the CountDown Cafe. There’s a surprisingly large selection of paninis and other lunch and snack items, and all the food (except things like chips and cookies) is made right there.

Oh yeah, and we checked the place out ourselves, just to make sure we were well-informed about the food before we started talking about it. Check out the Food Snob on page 20.

All of these cool attractions – and many more we didn’t have room to print – make it easy to see why more than 10,000 school kids and 47,000 science-loving people in all visit this private nonprofit every year.

To learn more, just stop by the Discovery Center any weekend (or any day at all when school’s not in session), go to starhop.com or call 271-STAR (7827).

Author: Jon Bodell

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