An exhibition of one of the UK’s largest private collections of space artefacts from human space exploration on display at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum will close on Sunday 17 May 2026.

The Space Vault Exhibition, which opened in June 2025, brings together 12 curated stories of human space exploration ‘above the Earth and to the Moon’ via immersive visuals and unique artefacts.

It contains rare and historic objects brought back to Earth from the lunar surface, low-Earth orbit and outer space, from NASA’s Apollo missions and the Soviet space era, to the American and Russian space shuttle programmes, International Space Station and SpaceX.

Highlights on display include manuals flown in space on the missions of Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 - the flights 55 years ago that mirror the daring activities of the Artemis II astronauts today as they voyage once again to the Moon.

The exhibition also includes the mission checklists that saved the crew of Apollo 13 when its oxygen tank exploded, Commander Dave Scott’s spacesuit umbilical cord through which he communicated his first words as he stepped onto the surface of the Moon, Lunar dust from the Hadley Rille landing site of Apollo 15, material from the Apollo 11 command module, a rare Soviet pressure suit and part of the nose cone of the first Starship to reach space.

Entry to the Space Vault Exhibition is included in the general admission price for Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum. For details of opening times, admission prices and to book tickets, visit the Thinktank website.