We are excited to announce a stellar programme of TED-style Expert Talks accompanying our popular Space Vault Exhibition, which explores humanity's journey into space and the science behind it.
The series will feature talks from leading UK space industry experts, offering attendees a rare opportunity to engage with specialists on topics ranging from prevention of space debris collisions and fly-bys of near Earth asteroids, to the challenges of designing lunar landers and achieving in-orbit spacecraft rendezvous.
As part of this events programme, the museum will also offer exclusive Behind-the-Vault sessions, giving guests a unique chance to don white gloves and get up close and personal with some of the most iconic items from the Exhibition, including rare artifacts from NASA’s Apollo missions and the Soviet space era. These intimate sessions are designed to provide deeper insights into the history of space exploration and the technological advancements that made these incredible achievements possible.
The Expert Talk series and Behind-the-Vault sessions will run until May 2025, with events catering to a variety of interests, from general audiences to space aficionados:
Thursday 14th November 2024 **New Date**
Behind the Vault Session #1: The Manuals that Saved Apollo 13
Speaker: Dr Michael Warner, Exhibition owner and curator
Private Behind-the-Vault sessions are available for enthusiasts to take a deep-dive into the Space Vault Exhibition collection. Participants are provided white gloves to examine up-close and hands-on a curated selection of artifacts. In this session we explore the Apollo 9 and Apollo 13 lunar module contingency manuals that saved the crew of Apollo 13. Bringing the artifacts to life, we will listen to live Ground-to-Air NASA Apollo audio archive material that match to the annotations in these historic documents as they were read up to the stricken crew.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £100 per person. Booking button below.
Thursday 21st November 2024:
Expert Talk #2: In-orbit Space Debris Removal
Speaker: Dr Jason Forshaw, Head of Business Development and Product Strategy, Astroscale
Jason will present the work of Astroscale, the global leader in on-orbit servicing. His talk will cover satellite life extension, in-situ space situational awareness, end-of-life operations and active debris removal. Since their first successful launch in March 2021, Astroscale has proven rendezvous and proximity operations technologies in orbit during the ELSA-d and ADRAS-J missions, establishing the company as a leader in on-orbit servicing.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Friday 6th December 2024:
Expert Talk #3: Space Exploration to Asteroids, Comets and KBOs
Speaker: Jon Pineau, Senior Space Systems Engineer, Stellar Solutions
Jon’s talk focuses on space exploration of solar system small bodies: Asteroids, Comets, and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). His presentation will include recent progress of NASA’s ‘Lucy’ spacecraft, which was launched on October 16th 2021 on a 12 year mission to visit ten asteroids. Jon is Lucy Science Operations Centre (SOC) Encounter Lead for an asteroid flyby scheduled for April 20th 2025.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Thursday 9th January 2025:
Expert Talk #4: Space-based solar power: how the UK is turning science fiction into reality
Speaker: Martin Soltau, co-CEO, Space Solar
Martin and his co-CEO Sam Adlen and their team, lead on development of space-based solar power in delivering Net Zero as a component of the future energy mix. Martin’s talk will cover what it is, how it works, technical advances over the last few years, the challenges and unknowns both technological and policy, and how solar power holds the potential to play a central role in the future of the UK and international space economy.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Thursday 23rd January 2025:
Behind the Vault Session #2: Crisis in Space: The Soviet Era Space Program
Speaker: Dr Michael Warner, Exhibition owner and curator
Private Behind-the-Vault sessions are available for enthusiasts to take a deep-dive into the Space Vault Exhibition collection. Participants are provided white gloves to examine up-close and hands-on a curated selection of artifacts. In this session we explore cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin’s Mir space station EVA Orlan spacesuit glove and Sokol KV-2 gloves flown on Soyuz TMA-1, and we will attempt to pressurize a Strizh spacesuit developed for the Soviet/Russian Buran space plane.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £100 per person. Booking button below.
Friday 7th February 2025:
Expert Talk #5: The Science and Technology of Satellites: from Design to Orbit and Beyond
Speaker: David Gomez, Head of Space Segment Section (CSC-STS), ECSAT, European Space Agency
David is head of the Space Segment section of the ESA European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications on the Harwell technology campus. His talk is on the design, manufacture and testing of satellites, how they are launched into space, operate in different orbits and survive the harsh environment of space, and their wide applications and uses.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Thursday 27th February 2025:
Behind the Vault Session #3: The Origin of Life on Earth: Geology on the Moon during Apollo 15 and 17
Speaker: Dr Michael Warner, Exhibition owner and curator
Private Behind-the-Vault sessions are available for enthusiasts to take a deep-dive into the Space Vault Exhibition collection. Participants are provided white gloves to examine up-close and hands-on a curated selection of artifacts. In this session we explore Apollo 15 and 17 lunar geological surverys and drilling equipment, and investigate the link between the critical lunar samples – the Genesis rock, green glass and orange soil – discovered on these mission and what they tell us about the origins of life on Earth.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £100 per person. Booking button below.
Friday 14th March 2025:
Expert Talk #6: Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation and Rendezvous
Speaker: Kieran Hayward, Head of Spacecraft AOCS & Rendezvous GNC Department, Deimos Space
Kieran will present on the history and current practices spacecraft rendezvous, from the earliest attempts during the NASA Gemini missions docking with Agena target, through to modern day autonomous methods of rendezvous being studied for in-orbit servicing and active debris removal.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Friday 25th April 2025: *New addition. Rescheduled date for Mark Yates’ talk, ‘The Tools of Lunar Surface Operations’ TBC*
Expert Talk #7: Challenges of Landing on the Moon
Speaker: Dr David Jones, Head of Technology, MDA Space
We first landed successfully on the Moon 58 years ago – why is it still so hard?! David will talk about his experiences developing landing sensors for lunar missions, as well as more generally about the trials, tribulations, and aspirations of all of us who are working to put humanity back on the Moon.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Friday 23rd May 2025:
Expert Talk #8: ‘The Last Man on the Moon’ – a talk by documentary film-maker Mark Craig
Speaker: Mark Craig, Film Director, Stopwatch Productions
The award-winning documentary ‘Last Man on the Moon’ brings the human side of space history to the screen. Mark Craig, director and co-producer of the critically-acclaimed feature documentary shares his personal experiences of working with Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan during the making the film, giving an engaging and entertaining insight into the late, great Apollo astronaut. The talk will include personal photos, unseen clips, and also insights about Mark’s new film: ‘Apollo 1’.
7.30pm – 9.00pm, £20 per person. Booking button below.
Bookings for all events can be made here:
The Bookings page opens in a new tab so you can refer back to full event descriptions here while making your booking.
Please note that in the unlikely event that a Talk or other session has to be cancelled, you will be offered the options of a rescheduled date for the same Talk or participating in a different Talk. Should neither of these options work for you and we will provide a full refund.