California Science Center

The California Science Center sits in Exposition Park, south of downtown Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum, the Coliseum and the rose garden. It is a state institution and its permanent galleries are free, which makes it one of the most visited museums in the western United States and a favourite of school groups. The present building opened in 1998 on the site of the old California Museum of Science and Industry, and its glass entrance dome, the Science Court, leads to three big themed galleries: Ecosystems, with living animals and a giant kelp tank; World of Life, with the animatronic body Tess; and Creative World, about the things people build. A seven-storey IMAX theatre stands beside the entrance.

The reason most people now come is the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The orbiter arrived in 2012 after a three-day crawl through the streets of Los Angeles and was shown lying on its wheels in a temporary pavilion for eleven years. In 2024 it was lifted upright and joined to two real solid rocket boosters and the last flight-qualified external tank, ET-94, to make the only complete shuttle stack on display anywhere, and a new building, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, has been built around it. That building opens on the thirteenth of November 2026. Until then the shuttle is out of sight, but the rest of the Science Center is open as usual.

Allow half a day, more with the IMAX. The galleries are hands-on, noisy and designed for families, but the aquarium, the aircraft and the space capsules reward adults who take their time.