NASA Collaborates with NYC Museum for New Immersive Outer Space Exhibit

Amid the bright city lights, New York is not an ideal spot for stargazing. However, space enthusiasts should head to lower Manhattan this spring—dark skies or not—thanks to a new digital art exhibit launched on April 7, featuring contributions from NASA and CNES (the French space agency) at Hall des Lumières, the city's first permanent immersive art center. An earlier version of this exhibit debuted at the Parisian sister museum, Atelier des Lumières, in 2021.

Destination Cosmos: The Immersive Space Experience will be available for eight weeks until June 4, 2023, at Hall des Lumières, which opened in 2022 in the historic Emigrant Savings Bank opposite City Hall. Culturespaces, the French museum foundation behind Hall des Lumières, worked alongside CNES and NASA to produce this 35-minute show, utilizing over 100 high-definition projectors to display imagery across the former bank's walls, floors, and columns, creating a nearly 360-degree immersive experience accompanied by music.

Guests will embark on a virtual journey through space across 13 unique sequences, starting with a prologue highlighting humanity’s initial steps into astronomy. The darkened hall will be filled with constellations and illustrations of the animals and mythological beings after which they are named. The experience then propels viewers from ancient history to the 1960s, featuring the space race with iconic footage of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s inaugural manned space flight and Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk, all set to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” a cultural hallmark of 1969.

Next, attendees will participate in a countdown for a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, witnessing smoke billowing from the center screen that spreads across the entire hall's floor. (Children, in particular, appeared to delight in chasing the visual effects during a recent visit.)

Guests will also experience a “visit” to the sun amidst a solar storm, accompanied by a dramatic operatic score, and watch the Perseverance Mars Rover snap a selfie on the red planet, set to David Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” of course. Utilizing footage from the Voyager Probe, Destination Cosmos ventures beyond the solar system, concluding with astonishing imagery captured by the James Webb and Hubble Space telescopes that extends beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

While there’s no audio narration to accompany the music, most sequences include captions that audiences can read for context.

As the show is on a loop, guests can remain as long as they wish and are encouraged to explore the 31,650-square-foot space to view the sequences from various perspectives. For instance, the basement beneath the bank’s main hall displays the entire show with the same visuals and soundtrack. The mirrored columns in the lower level create an engaging visual effect, and a collection of bean bag chairs offers a relaxed viewing experience distinct from upstairs.

Take a sneak peek at the exhibit

Planning your visit (and ticket purchase)

Destination Cosmos: The Immersive Space Experience is open from April 7 to June 4 at Hall des Lumières, located at 49 Chambers Street in lower Manhattan. The exhibit operates from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday (closed Tuesday) and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Timed entry tickets can be purchased now at ticketmaster.com. (Hall des Lumières continues to feature its inaugural Gustav Klimt exhibit on select dates and times.)

Ticket prices start at $25 for adults and $12 for youth aged 5 to 16, with discounts offered for seniors 65 and older, as well as veterans, active-duty military personnel, and first responders. Children under five can enter for free.