📡Upcoming Self-Guided Tour Days🔭

We are pleased to offer self guided museum tours on many weekdays and some weekends! Our museum and grounds are open to visitors during our business hours so long as there are not other events, programs, or camps utilizing the site.

On days that self guided tours are available, the museum is typically open from 10am to 5pm, though we recommend guests arrive no later than 3pm to begin their tour.

Give us a call to check availablilty come explore! When you arrive, press the silver call button at the gate then proceed to the visitors entrance. Tickets are sold at the door for $12.00 per person.

• Operations and Control Room with:
  • Telescope Controls
  • 3D Printers and 3D models, inculding Lunar and Martian terrain
  • Historical exhibits of telescope and satellite communications equipment of the past
• NASA Exhibit Gallery with:
  • Apollo Lunar Lander
  • ATS 6 Satellite
  • Redstone Rocket Engine
  • Many other items flown in space from Mercury through the Space Shuttle program
• Gem & Mineral Gallery with:
  • Hundreds of specimes from North Carolina
  • Hundreds of specimens from around the world
  • 600 micromounts of rare minerals
  • Plant, animal, fish, and dinosaur fossils
  • Impact glasses like tektites including moldavite and australite, and other glasses like fulgarites and trinitite
• Meteorite Gallery with:
  • Stony meteorites, Iron meteorites, and Stony-Iron meteorites that fell in places around the world
  • Famous meteorites with exciting stories
  • Meteorites that originated from the Moon, Mars, and locations in the asteroid belt
• Fluorescent Tunnel full of rocks that glow and emit light in neon colors

PARI's annual spring open house is free and open to the public.  Join us for a day of fun and STEM learning!

• 📅 Saturday, April 27, 2024
• 🕙 10:00am until 4:00pm
• 🎟️ Admission is free, but there will be some paid activities
• 🚀Hop on board our shuttle for outdoor site tours (*not a real space shuttle, just a ground one🚐)
• 💎Take in our museum galleries with NASA and space artifacts, minerals and gems, meteorites, and more, open with scientists to answer your questions☄️
• 🔭Peek through a solar telescope to safely observe the Sun and look for sunspots☀️ (weather allowing)
• 🪐Journey through our solar system on the Galaxy Walk, our scale model of our home in the universe
• 🖍️Visit the activity tables with fun stuff for kids
• 🎶Hear music played by DJ RaZor with 4 Dreamz Entertainment
• 🌌Immerse yourself in outer space with a planetarium show (requires a separate $5 ticket)
• 😋Enjoy a meal from local food vendors, and snacks from the PARI dining hall (food must be purchased)🥪
• 😃Visit booths and displays from some of PARI's friends and partners.
• ⛰️Hike to our observation deck for beautiful views
• 🎉Play games outside
• 📡 Talk to one of our educators about our summer camps and learn about scholarships for your kids. You can even claim a scholarship (while they last) and register while you're here.
• 🎨 Paint minifigures of spaceships, astronauts, dinosaurs, & more (paid activity)

Come by and bring some family and friends. It's the perfect day to experience what we're all about and learn about our home in the universe!