McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

Join our Mission to Launch the Discovery Center Solar System Trail

Help us step into the future by revitalizing a part of the Discovery Center’s past! With your support, we will introduce the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Solar System Trail to the Greater Concord Community for current and future generations to enjoy. 

The Discovery Center Solar System Trail will be a proportionally accurate, engaging, and accessible walking-trail around the Discovery Center and NHTI campus! Featuring informative and interpretive signs and an optional audio guide available digitally, The Solar System Trail is a walkable model of The Solar System that embraces both the beauty of our local New England nature and the wonder and excitement of space!
 
 
Why a Solar System Trail and why now?

 The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Solar System Trail reflects where The Discovery Center has been, and where we want to go. In the late 1990’s, The Discovery Center featured a version of this interactive trail, but with our expansion over time as the Center has grown, the scale and scope of the project has evolved. Our building has grown, so the trail needs to grow too!

 With your help, we will bring this science and nature-focused outdoor journey to our doorstep and create an additional learning experience outside our building’s walls that is fully accessible and free for all!

Our Mission Is Clear

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center exists to inspire every generation to reach for the stars through engaging, artful, and entertaining experiences that explore astronomy, aviation, Earth, and space science.

 The Solar System Trail will bring this vision to life by offering:

• A way to combine movement and discovery
• A free, all-ages experience that encourages learners of any age
• An expansion of the Discovery Center’s learning environment
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Your Donation Today Sparks Tomorrow’s Discoveries

 This one-day campaign is your chance to shape the future of STEM learning in New Hampshire.

 Every contribution made during NH Gives moves us closer to:

Designing - A scaled-down and proportionally accurate walking trail outside the Discovery Center

Ordering & Installing - durable, high-quality interactive signage along the trail that is engaging and accessible to our visitors and the public

Inspiring - a new generation of scientists, explorers, and dreamers

 Help us expand our educational impact and encourage more astronomy-filled exploration today! 
 
 Give today. Share the mission. Spark wonder.

 Thank you for supporting the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center—where science takes flight and futures are launched.

Who We Are

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is New England's own air and space museum, dedicated to New Hampshire space pioneers Christa McAuliffe and Alan Shepard. Centrally located in Northern New England, our mission is to inspire every generation to reach for the stars, through engaging, artful and entertaining activities that explore astronomy, aviation, earth and space science. Our vision is to be a sustainable memorial that will engage minds, make learning fun, and inspire people of all ages to pursue lifelong learning about our universe.

Located right off I-93 in Concord, NH and open year-round, the 45,000-square-foot Discovery Center offers exhibits on astronomy, aviation, earth science, space science, space exploration history and general exhibits on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); planetarium shows for all ages; pre-K-12 school field trips; workshops for children, adults and families including a lecture series, summer STEM camps, a home school STEM workshop series, after-school programs, telescope observation nights; an annual aviation and space festival; Scout overnight adventures; visits from astronauts, scientists and engineers; facility rentals for meetings, weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, proms and more. We are dedicated to reaching beyond our walls, through online learning, distance education and educational outreach that includes a portable planetarium, telescopes and air rockets;