H R MacMillan Space Centre

I’ve been here a few times and really love it! I come with the kids from work and it is a great time. I love the hands on play and the different shows we can go to. I wish it was bigger, but it is still a lot of fun! The sky show is informative and good for kids, and the park around the place is perfect to play at with the extra time before we brave the border!

I love forking it up. Why not bring a girl here on a cool education date? I love the telescope and the simulated stargazing experience. If a dude that was trying to court me brought me here, I’d think it’s sweet. It’s not mind blowing, albeit, it’s educational and a good place to have a birthday party (if they still do that like they did in the 90s). It’s great fun, check it out of you haven’t already. Great for locals and tourists.

The worst museum in Vancouver so far.
36CAD for small venue with outdated or literally non-​working equipment. Kids were boring, we were shocked after discovered it’s size.

My 5 year old son loves space so thought it would be fun to check it out, as I remember it being really cool when I went on a field trip when I was a kid. The museum is really small and not much to write home about. We did two shows … The planetarium one and another one about life in outer space. It was too much talking by the presenters for a little kid and not a lot of pizzazz … So maybe older kids who are really into space would like it but the museum wasn’t very interactive. Spend some more money and go to Science World — now that place is fun and worth the cost.

Ok folks, if you need a peaceful few hours away from the throngs of tourists and you have an interest in astronomy, go visit the Planetarium and see a show or two. The live talk with the head astronomer was interesting and informative (he showed us just-​released photos of Pluto from the New Horizon probe). Then, relaxing under the dim lights of the planetarium in the comfy chairs with the soothing music watching stars and planets swish by ahead of us felt just about as good as getting a massage. Great for kids, better for parents! ;-)
PS bring your own food for a picnic at the park afterwards

There’s not much to say here, sadly.
As most reviewers already pointed it out, this place is a bit outdated (the building is shared with the Museum of Vancouver). A lot of the displays were not in order. My husband was really looking forward to visiting this, since our last time was in Chabot Space Centre more than a year ago. If I thought CSC was small, this really threw me. It’s very, very small. I don’t think it’s even worth bringing the kids. The place was not crowded (as such venues usually are), which I didn’t find suspicious until I entered the room.
The only plus side of this was the planetarium on the upper floor. The show was about Stars and it was interesting. The narrator was good and answered all the questions that turned up during the show.
The price ($ 15) is too steep for what they’re offering. I’d skip it and opt for something else (preferably Museum of Anthropology).

Went there very recently and like many others said, it’s pretty steep in price considering that a lot of the interactive exhibits are down for maintenance, as well as how they appear to be out of date… there’s a distinct lack of Chris Hadfield here and a strong presence of Soviet era innovations going on.

This place is a dive!
Outdated, expensive, many displays broken.
We decided to check this out today with my Inspiration Pass from the library, which is great, because if we had paid to go inside we would have been furious!
So ghetto, don’t waste your money.

Totally Informative. We saw Surfing the Solar system and just loved the soothing voice of the live speaker. He was so knowledgeable and could handle all the crazy questions the kids in the audience threw at him. From how we think Mars lost it’s water and questions about a supernova to «Are there cows in space that made the milky way?» Before that we caught the smaller show and visited the gallery. Both shows were great. The gallery has the feeling that it could use funding to help update it. Go for the shows that is where you get your money’s worth.
Apparently they have just started playing a new movie like show so we will come back. Problem is that the website doesn’t seem to say when it is playing.

A great place for the kids, but many of the games /​demo displays are not working. :(

The Space Centre is a great place to geek out and learn more about space and our planet. Although I am partial to these kinds of attractions, I found the Space Centre looked as though it had been created after there was the buzz of space travel and the moon landing, but not much has been updated since.
I’ll start with my favorite part of the visit — there are presentations throughout the day, and I attended a presentation on rockets. It was an informative and fun presentation, and it also got audience involvement with the on-​stage experiments.
Things I didn’t enjoy as much included the frustrating space games (several of which weren’t working). If you take the time to play the games you’ll be delighted with the nostalgic ‘80s throwback style, however I wasn’t able to complete any of the games successfully due to both frustration with controls and difficulty with understanding the objectives.
Screens are still CRT televisions. Although there’s good information on the TVs, the dated veneer makes the place feel less than futuristic.
I’d recommend you go to the Space Centre only if you enjoy reading information on the planets and space travel, or wish to attend some presentations. If you’re a visual person, this might not be for you.

Like the Science World, this is a interesting place to take curious teenagers and people who naturally dig understanding why/​how things happen.
Not all the attractions were actually working, what is a bit frustrating, but it is a cool, fun experience.
Besides the exhibit hall, go to the theater and planetarium shows.

If you are not below the age of 8 then don’t bother going here. I went about a week ago and they were doing construction. We had to pay for parking. The crab statue was gone. The admission was pretty steep too. $ 18 for an adult and $ 15 for youth. Thank god we had a coupon that let our total come to $ 26 for 1 adult and 2 youth. We saw the movie IBEX, that was the one that was up next. So we went to the movie and the screen was cool and everything but the movie looked like it was from 1995, and was fairly boring and cheesy. On top of that someone was talking behind us for a majority of the movie. Ok so now we go down to the room where you can look at stuff. Mind you there was only one room. The rest of the building was doing construction and we didn’t go to the museum part because it was extra. The room was very outdated and have the attractions were broken. So we left very disappointed. Very lame, especially compared to when I was a kid.

This sounds kinda bad, but I almost burst out laughing when I stepped inside this museum. It’s a LOT smaller than what I remember as a kid. Also, you know you’re not in Houston or Cape Canaveral for sure.
Pay parking is available in the giant lot out front, but why throw money away when you can park for free a block away?
Admission here is pretty steep for what you get ($ 15 for an adult), and several of the exhibits are pretty dated. CRT screens still? Really? Fortunately, the few kids running around were oblivious to this fact.
To give them credit, the models of the various satellites sent up over the years are pretty interesting to look at. And of course, there’s that famous moon rock that you can actually touch — 1 of 5 touchable specimens in the world. I didn’t know the moon was dark brown.
If you’ve never been to a space museum, then this could whet your appetite, but if you’ve been to any of the NASA ones, then don’t bother with this one.

Space. The final frontier.
If you were ever looking for a low-​key everyday place to geek out, then look no further.
We watched two shows: Nightwatch and Quest for Origins. I had low expectations but it was SERIOUSLY entertaining. And even on a dreary winter evening, so many people had the same idea as us — the place was so popular it was surprising!
Not only was the show itself a lot of fun, but the gentleman hosting the after-​show was really knowledgeable as well, which made for a great presentation about what to see in our night sky. We even hung back afterwards to ask a ton of questions about space and about the projector as well (which itself is super cool — you should totally check it out before it gets replaced with a digital projector in the future).
We also checked out the museum on a separate day, and it was smaller than we expected but the interactive shows they had were great for kids as well. It’s enough to keep you occupied for an afternoon, but if you’re there for the night show, you should also check out the planetarium next door — We got to see a close up of Jupiter, the moon, and a few stars around the sky.
LOVE this place. Thank you Vancouver for having such an awesome spot in the city!

It’s kind of funny going back to these places when we get older. We always get the sense of «I thought this place was bigger!» Maybe it was, or perhaps our perceptions of size is different now that we are all grown up.
I remember this place used to be amazing!!! I was a kid who always gazed up into the stars and wondering about the mysteries of the vast cosmos… are we alone?
Don’t come here looking for those answers, you won’t find them… however you will get to touch some moon rocks and an old rocket. They have some flight simulators which were alright, but they look dated! I’ve seen better games from SNES.
I’m sure you’ll learn something new when you come here, but my socks weren’t blown away by this place… not anymore atleast.

First of all, I need to confess that I am obsessed with learning about the cosmos. I am the type of person who will spend hours and hours watching documentaries about planets, black holes, galactic cannibalism, dark matter, dark energy, and (my current favourite) quasars, among other things. I tell all my friends that in an alternate reality, were I more proficient in math and physics, I would have been an astrophysicist. Carl Sagan is/​was amazing –a poetic mastermind of popular astrophysics. There’s just something that’s so captivating about the universe, and personally I find it comforting to know that we are all a part of something unfathomably greater than ourselves. We truly are all made of stars.
Whew… I geeked out there for a minute. ANYway, all that being said, it was only natural that I visit the HR MacMillan Space Centre. I remember coming here as a kid, and I thought it was SO cool. Now as an adult, I still find it to be interesting, but the space centre is very family-​oriented (read: tailored to a younger crowd). Even so, the HR MacMillan Space Centre has evening events happening throughout the year that are worth checking out. Also, though not space related, the laser shows are a lot of fun. Pink Floyd lends itself perfectly to the laser show experience, and other bands are laserfied on a rotating basis. Even if you’re not SUPER into the band that’s playing, you’re sure to at least get a giggle from watching all the stoner kids trip out around you.
Overall, the HR MacMillan Space Centre is A-​OK –I’d say closer to a 3.5 out of 5. As an adult, it’s worth a visit if there’s a special presentation going on, and if you’ve got kids, take them here to stimulate their imaginations. I’ve been to observatories in other cities that were better, but then again, perpetually cloudy Vancouver may not be the best place for an observatory. Ah well, you can’t win them all, right?

I went here recently for the Vancouver Browncoats charity event for Can’t Stop the Serenity. The facility was clean and the theatre was comfortable. The staff that I encountered were pleasant and helpful upon our arrival. I can’t review their offerings because we were just there for an event but from what I saw, it looked interesting.
The bathrooms were clean and so was the facility in general. My only dislike was the parking. It was plentiful but it was rather pricey. According to the staff there, they advised us to be mindful of the time change and ensure there was the proper amount paid. Around six o’clock, I saw several people dashing outside to be sure they had enough on their tickets so they wouldn’t GET a ticket.
By the way, there were two families of ducks in the fountain in the front. In the centre of the fountain, there was a massive metal sculpture which I loved. A stylised crab with its massive claws reaching upward toward the sky. It looked like some sort of beast one would best in order to gain the treasure in its grasp… what? I’m a gaming geek. Don’t judge!

Another chidlhood memory! I just remembered it being bigger! Or was it because I was smaller??? ;) They should give patrons a discount if they go to the Vancouver museum next door.
They have people on a hallucinogenics on the weekends due to the laser light shows. Bring your kids here to watch all the messed up people and it might deter them from doing the yayo, shrooms and weed.

This place seems like it would have been fantastic when it opened in 1968. However today it feels like not much has been done since. There was upgrades in 1997 but the place feels run down and tired. Numerous hands on exhibits were out of order and the ones that worked had issues. A space centre should wow you with technology and inspire you to what is out in the great beyond.
Taking a kid to this museum is like showing the a Sony Walkman and expecting them to be impressed. Perhaps they should move the entire space centre inside the museum next door because that is where it belongs.