Pittsburgh, We Have Liftoff
From career readiness to interactivity, explore your place in space in Pittsburgh
Commencing final countdown to fun. As the United States returns to the moon for the first time in 50 years, Pittsburgh has emerged as a pivotal city helping to shape the future of space travel with aerospace, robotics and tech companies popping up throughout the city.
If we’re going to get back to the Moon and reach Mars, however, we’re going to need the workforce to make it happen. That’s why a brand-new museum and expansive exhibit have now opened in Pittsburgh focused on career readiness and inspiring visitors to imagine themselves as pioneers in space exploration.
Main Photo Credit: David Whitemyer, Luci Creative
Moonshot Museum
Let’s start at our nearest neighbor, the Moon. Moonshot Museum, opened in 2022, is Pennsylvania’s first space museum and the only museum in the world to focus solely on career readiness for the modern space industry.
Walking into Moonshot, guests realize this is a museum in name only. The focus here is hands-on, interactive experiences where visitors control the mission. Help solve real-world problems of a lunar rover by picking the right combination of power, sensors and equipment to drill through ice on the Moon. Then, hover over a responsive map of the Moon to identify the best spot for your lunar lander to touch down.
It isn’t all science and tech, either. Moonshot’s programming activates a wide variety of learners to solve political disputes on the Moon, use their design skills to project a mission patch and more. There’s even a spot to write messages that will be scanned and taken to the Moon on a future mission.
The best part of Moonshot? It shares the building with Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh's space robotics company actively assembling lunar landers and their payloads. Visitors can peer through floor-to-ceiling windows which allow an unparalleled view into a real-time space mission in Astrobotic’s clean room as they imagine themselves in these exciting career paths.
Mars: The Next Giant Leap | Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center
Next, let’s travel 300 million miles via the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center and its newest exhibit, Mars: The Next Giant Leap. The Center’s largest experience added since 1991, this 7,400-squarefoot exhibit tackles sustainability, climate change and social justice as they relate to space exploration.
Within the exhibit, guests can experience what life would look like on the red planet and the challenges of growing foods, developing settlements and prioritizing scarce resources. They’ll also hear from different voices on the future of Mars and Earth and be tasked with voting on how to proceed with difficult issues. Most importantly, guests of all ages will once again be able to envision themselves in space careers that go way beyond astronauts and rocket scientists.
There’s a new space race going on in Pittsburgh to have enough talented individuals to fuel future space travel, and these two forward-thinking museums are the key to developing career readiness and a wonder of space travel from a young age.
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Moonshot Museum1016 N. Lincoln Ave.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15233
Carnegie Science CenterOne Allegheny Ave.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15212