President Gemma Kiddy with speaker Mike Kapur in front of his final slide, showing a moonwalker with what looks like a barbecue
Mike Kapur, chairman on of the National Space Centre in Leicester,spoke passionately to Leicester Novus Rotary on the centre’s mission to entertain and inspire young people to become interested in space and science generally.
Mike said that not only does the centre attract 90,000 school visits a year — mostly from within a radius of about 60 miles — but is an important part of the £9 billion-a-year space industry in the UK. The centre earns huge amounts in exports to 60 countries of its locally-developed planetarium shows.
The talk came shortly after it was announced that a £4 million extension to the space centre will allow it to increase the number of visitors it can accommodate. The current capacity is about 2,200 people daily. We have a waiting list and try not to turn people away, but we believe we should able to accommodate everyone who wants to come, said Mike.
The eight members and four visitors who heard Mike’s talk were clearly deeply interested because they had plenty of questions after his talk.
