The California Science Center (sometimes spelled California ScienCenter) is a state agency and museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. Billed as the West Coast's largest hands-on science center, the California Science Center is a public-private partnership between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation. The California Natural Resources Agency oversees the California Science Center and the California African American Museum. Founded in 1951 as the "California Museum of Science and Industry", the Museum was remodeled and renamed in 1998 as the "California Science Center". The California Science Center hosts the California State Science Fair annually.
Admission includes access to the permanent exhibits, such as the Space Shuttle Endeavour and other prominent aircraft and spacecraft, and to various demonstrations. A separate ticket is required for the IMAX movies, most special traveling exhibitions, and special activities that include a climbing wall, motion simulator, and a high-wire bicycle.
Attendance
The Center received 1,694,000 visitors in 2022, making it 6th in the List of most-visited museums in the United States and the most-visited U.S. science museum.
Affiliations
The center has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers. The museum is also an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program.
Current permanent exhibits
Ecosystems
The two-story, 45,000-square-foot exhibit features display zones with live animals and aquariums about wildlife and adaptation in different ecosystems, including a river, desert, polar region, deep sea, ocean, island and urban areas, as well as the entire planet Earth.
Creative World
An area with hands-on activities and exhibits that explore innovation and invention, with themes involving construction, energy and transportation.
World of Life
Examines the processes of life and similarities among organisms, including food, body organs like the heart and brain, senses, defenses against threats, how living things reproduce which includes a hatching chick display, DNA, and microscopic organisms.
A titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) flower is now on loan from the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.
The World of Life exhibit is the home of Tess, the 50 foot human body simulator who, with the help of her animated friend Walt, demonstrate how homeostasis keeps the human body in balance.
Space exhibits
Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule which carried Ham, a chimpanzee, the first great ape in space (1961) Gemini 11 capsule, flown by Pete Conrad and Richard F. Gordon Jr. in 1966 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Command Module from the 1975 mission Space Shuttle Endeavour in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion Space Shuttle external tank immediately outside the Oschin Pavilion SKETCH Foundation Gallery in Science Court - exhibits about the Solar System, space travel and aviation, displays of historic aircraft, space vehicles and equipment, and space telescopes
Aircraft
Douglas DC-8 jetliner
Lockheed F-104D Starfighter
Lockheed A-12 Oxcart two-seater trainer, Serial Number 60-6927 “Titanium Goose” Replica Bell X-1 (movie prop from The Right Stuff) 1902 Wright Glider replica 1929 Velie Monocoupe Northrop T-38 Talon Jet Trainer, Serial Number 58-1196 Northrop F-20 Tigershark McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet Serial Number 161725
Robotic spacecraft
Engineering prototype for Viking Lander
Cassini-Huygens planetary probe (replica) Pioneer 10 planetary probe (replica) Mariner IV planetary probe (replica) Pioneer-Venus planetary probe (replica)
History
State Exhibition
The museum's history dates back to the first California State Exhibition building, which opened in Exposition Park in Los Angeles in 1912, the site of an agricultural fairground from 1872 to 1910. The brick and terra cotta building, designed by William D. Coates, Jr., state architect, and N. Ellery, state engineer, displayed agriculturally-based natural resources and industrial products from across the state, including ranching, fish and game, coal mining, gold mining, oil production, and lumbering, as well as some of the state's recreational attractions. After World War II, the building also featured exhibits about state science and technology industries.