The Astro Science Challenge (2015-2020)

Originally created in 2015 in collaboration with Coney, the Royal Observatory, the Met Office, the Science Museum (London), the British Science Association, Young Rewired State and the European Space Agency for the UK Space Agency’s Principia programme celebrating Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station.

The Astro Science Challenge is an interactive, space science adventure for children aged 7-11 to inspire them in STEM subjects. More than 12,000 participating Cadets across the UK completed a series of Missions operated in real time in the run up to Tim Peake’s launch before graduating as fully fledged Agents of UNSA in a live event at the Science Museum’s iMax cinema with remote graduation ceremonies taking place across the UK and the world!

Astro Science Challenge Graduation
photos: Richard Davenport

When the world went into Lockdown during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, we ran a new live version with more than 5000 Cadets with twice weekly live broadcasts on the UNSA YouTube channel and the project remains free for anyone to take part in via the app we created and that you can download at the Astro Science Challenge website.