Cité de l'espace
Encyclopedia
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. More than 4 million visitors have already visited it after 13 years of exploitation.
The park makes it possible to visit full scale models of the rocket Ariane 5
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...
(55 metres in height), Mir space station, and Soyuz
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...
modules. A 140 seat and a 280 seat planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
presents spectacles throughout the day. Cité de l'Espace is also equipped with numerous exhibits, often interactive, for example, the control room close to the model of Ariane 5, makes it possible to prepare the launching of a rocket, help with its flight and then place a satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
in orbit! Terradome (a terrestrial half-sphere 25 m in diameter) presents the history of the space from the Big-bang to the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. The building of Australia, opened in 2005, includes a new 280 seat planetarium, equipped with a hemispherical screen of 600 m ², an IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
cinema presenting Space Station 3D, a 3D film on board the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, the Stellarium, and conference rooms.
History
- June 1997 : Inauguration of the Cité de l'espace by Dominique BaudisDominique BaudisDominique Baudis is the French ombudsman. Formerly a journalist, politician and Mayor of Toulouse, he had been a member of DL and later of the leading centre-right Union for a Popular Movement....
, deputy mayor of ToulouseToulouseToulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, and Claudie HaigneréClaudie HaigneréClaudie Haigneré is a French doctor, politician, and former astronaut with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales and the European Space Agency ....
, cosmonaut and godmother of the park. - July 1998 : Inauguration of the full scale Mir Space Station.
- September 2000 : The millionth visitor is welcomed to the Cité.
- October 2000 : Inauguration of the Terr@dome.
- October 2002 : Inauguration of a permanent exposition hall dedicated to MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. - July 2003 : Start point of the 13th stage of the Tour de FranceTour de FranceThe Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
. - October 2003 : The Cité is officially designated a "Tourisme et Handicap" site for the four types of handicap (mental, visual, motor, hearing).
- April 2005 : Inauguration of "Astralia - le 6ème continent", (the 6th continent), notably housing the new planetariumPlanetariumA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
and the IMAXIMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
cinema. - May 2006 : Inauguration of a space specially dedicated to children, "la Base des Enfants".
Some figures
- 200 000 visitors in 2004
- Park area: 3.5 hectares
- 2000 m² exhibition space
- 2 planetariumPlanetariumA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
s of 140 and 280 seats, 15 and 20 m in diameter respectively.
External links
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- This page was translated and adapted from the French Wikipedia