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Galleries & Exhibits

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Visit INFINITY!

Visit INFINITY!

INFINITY Science Center is one of the newest – and most fun – destinations for STEM learning in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region.

INFINITY Science Center is one of the newest – and most fun – destinations for STEM learning in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region.

INFINITY is a non-profit organization and serves as the official visitor center for NASA’s Stennis Space Center and its resident labs and offices. Each of the 30+ federal and state agencies, universities and industries at Stennis falls into either an Earth or Space science category. Few people realize that the entire northern Gulf Coast is rich in leading edge, world-class space, military, oceans and weather research, plus ship building, chemical manufacturing, engineering support, petroleum and high tech operations.  It’s INFINITY’s vision to be the focal point for Earth and Space Sciences education and dialogue along the Gulf Coast.

Visitors to the 35,000-square-foot science center enter a world where discovery truly is endless. The fun begins with outdoor exhibits such as a tsunami buoy, a U.S. Navy riverine training boat, and the colossal Apollo Saturn V first stage.   

Just inside the front entrance in the Natrium, check out our Engineering Workshop as you design and build your own inventions, or learn about more than 200 species of carnivorous plants in the Carnivorous Plants Conservatory.  

Experience LIVE presentations ranging from animal adaptations to future exploration of Mars in our X-SPHERE-ience Theater. 

In our Earth and Space Galleries, you’ll find simulators and artifacts, video theaters, Smithsonian-loaned artifacts, and a life-sized, walk-through mockup of the International Space Station’s Destiny module. INFINITY’s Space Gallery offer glimpses into space suit technology, new space rockets, and more. The gallery features pre-Apollo history and a progression of NASA programs from Apollo and Gemini to International Space Station and the new SLS program, designed to take the first humans to Mars. INFINITY’s largest space exhibit, the Apollo 19 Saturn V first stage, which is viewable from the Space Gallery, was originally slated for the cancelled Apollo 19 mission. See INFINITY’s newest indoor space exhibit, the Apollo 4 command module that was launched as part of the first “all-up” test of the Saturn V rocket!

 

INFINITY’s 3D Immersive Theater boasts a state-of-the-art laser 3D projection system and surround sound audio to take the movie experience to the next level. Enjoy award-winning content from the world’s top providers, including Giant Screen Films, BBC Earth, K2 Communications, National Geographic, Cosmic Pictures, and more.

 

Our Galleries

Our Galleries

A boy is looking at a display of plants in a glass case.

Natrium

Your first stop inside INFINITY Science Center! Step lightly through the Carnivorous Plants Conservatory to learn about the more than 200 species of carnivorous plants that give dining a whole new shape. (Enter at your own risk – if you’re an insect!)

Engineers 12 & under can create and build their own inventions in our Engineering Workshop.
People working on computers in the office

Earth Gallery

The first floor Earth Gallery, INFINITY's largest in square feet, features the Inundation Station, The Sandbox, Environmental Monitoring Stations, and the Hurricane Prediction Lab, where you can learn about key conditions that influence hurricanes, their importance in forecasting, and how data is collected and used in severe weather prediction.

Embark on a deep ocean excursion as you travel down through the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, observing a variety of sea life along the way in the Deep Ocean Explorer. Go back in time with Swamps to Space as it tells of NASA/Stennis Space Center's humble beginnings, the sacrifices and contributions of the Hancock County residents to make the center a reality, and Stennis' critical role in the Apollo Program.

Apollo 4, the first flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle

Space Gallery

Located on the second floor, the Space Gallery is peppered with artifacts from the Smithsonian and from INFINITY's own collections, feature astronaut space suits, Space Shuttle rocket engine components and tires, a model of an Apollo command module, and a moon rock from Apollo 15.

Strike a pose at Sensors, Satellites, & Selfies, or walk through a life-size mockup of the International Space Station's Destiny module. You can watch the latest videos about the Orion space capsule while sitting inside it, or learn about the range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Look down on the colossal Apollo 19 Saturn V first stage from the floor-to-ceiling observation windows at the end of the gallery, or step outside to get a real feel of its incredible size!
Kid playing with colorful toys

Little Learner's Lab

The Little Learner's Lab (L3) is made for children from birth through 5 years old.

The Little Learner's Lab provides a designated space for birth to 5 years where there's hands-on exploration, experiences that encourage discovery through play, development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills, making connections to the world around them, developing observation skills through simple investigations, and activities to compare, sort and classify.

The Lab was painted by local artist, Jason Peck who transformed the classroom to a swamp, space station, and space. The Little Learner's Lab and its programming is Sponsored By: Walt Disney Imagineering, Chemours, and Hancock County Excel By 5.
Artifacts & Collections

Artifacts & Collections

INFINITY is a relatively young museum, as museums go, so the number of artifacts INFINITY curates in its own collection is small... but growing. For example, we have a 150-year old pirough that was used on the Pearl River a century before there WAS a Stennis. Throughout the center, however, you'll see a variety of artifacts, art, and displays on loan from NASA, the Smithsonian, the U.S. Navy and NOAA: an Apollo space suit, a moon rock, a linear aerospike engine, just to name a few. But not all of the artifacts here are inside: we have plenty of space- and science-related artifacts outside, too. Outdoor artifacts at the Center include...
H-1 Rocket Engine

H-1 Rocket Engine

Developed by Rocketdyne, the H-1 was a liquid-propellant engine that burned liquid oxygen and propellant RP-1, a kerosene derivative. A cluster of eight H-1 engines were used to power the Saturn S-1B stage, providing a total of 1.6 million pounds of thrust.

The Saturn S-1B was used to qualify the Apollo spacecraft for manned missions and for testing concepts used on the Saturn V such as clustering rocket engines. Later, it was used to transport astronauts for Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
F-1 Rocket Engine

F-1 Rocket Engine

Developed by Rocketdyne in the 1950s, five F-1 engines were used to power the S-1C first stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched humans to the moon during the Apollo Program.

The engine still is the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever developed. The Saturn V was the largest operational launch vehicle ever produced. Standing over 363 feet high with its Apollo spacecraft payload, it produced over 7.5 million pounds of thrust at lift-off.
Special Operations Craft-Riverine

Special Operations Craft-Riverine

Naval Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman with Special Boat Team 22 at NASA Stennis Space Center employ the Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R), which is specifically designed for the clandestine insertion and extraction of Navy SEALs and other special operations forces along the shallow waterways and open water environments.
NOMAD Buoy

NOMAD Buoy

The Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device was developed in the 1940s for the U.S. Navy’s offshore data collection program. The versatile buoy can be configured with a wide range of sensors for monitoring weather, air and water quality, wave height and ocean currents. It is designed to withstand extreme ocean and weather conditions and is successfully deployed worldwide.