This project supports astronomy teaching and research at San Antonio College and enhances public education and personal enrichment programs offered for the community by the San Antonio College Planetarium and NASA Challenger Learning Center.

It features a remodel of a 50-year-old planetarium dome with a new tower and observatory addition. The star party deck and new planetary projection system invite students of all ages to explore the heavens. It opened in late October 2014.

The core of the Challenger Learning Center is an interactive simulated orbiting space station and a mission control room patterned after the NASA Johnson Space Center. This Challenger Learning Center joins a nationwide network that teaches math, science, teamwork and problem-solving through space flight simulations.

The family of Astronaut Richard Scobee played an important role in this project.  He and other members of the last Challenger crew are honored by a memorial wall near the entrance to the planetarium.

22,500 SF                                                                       $15 Million

Robert Moritz, Designer

Mark Baudler, Senior Architect & Construction Administrator