Early access to galleries at 9 a.m. Special film screening at 10 a.m.
The Fleet Science Center invites guests who would benefit from a low-sensory experience to the Accessibility Mornings.
On the third Saturday of every month, visitors can enjoy admission to the exhibit galleries in a quieter setting, an hour before the museum opens to the public, and a special documentary screening with house lights on and a lower soundtrack volume. Visitors are welcome to stay and enjoy the museum all day.
The Fleet Science Center strives to be an inclusive place where people of all needs and abilities are welcome and accommodated with respect every day. Science is for everyone!
Free admission for one guest and one chaperone included. Regular admission rates apply for any additional guests.
Ear defenders are available for use during your visit at the Fleet Science Center. Please inquire at the ticket counter or at the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater.
Upcoming Films
February 18
Flight of the Butterflies
The iconic monarch butterfly is a true marvel of nature. It weighs less than a penny, yet it makes one of the longest migrations on Earth across a continent, with pinpoint navigational accuracy, to a secluded place it has never been. In Flight of the Butterflies, you’ll join the monarchs' perilous and extraordinary journey while following an intrepid scientist’s 40-year search to find the monarchs’ secret hideaway. Featuring breathtaking cinematography, an award-winning production team, a true scientific mystery, and hundreds of millions of real butterflies, Flight of the Butterflies soars on the giant IMAX Dome screen.
For the first time ever, witness the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, inside a chrysalis.
Travel to the remote mountain peaks of Mexico and discover the secret overwintering site of millions of monarchs.
Join Dr. Fred Urquhart and his family on a decades-long quest to unravel a scientific mystery.
March 18
Train Time
Join the crew of a giant freight train for an eye-popping, music-infused journey across America. Giant diesels, spectacular terrain, tens of thousands of miles of track—and millions of pounds of freight that can’t wait. Created by the director of the celebrated IMAX® Experience Rocky Mountain Express and his team, Train Time is captured on 15/70mm motion picture film, the world’s largest film format for exhibition in IMAX® and other giant screen theaters. To deliver the cargo, Train Time propels audiences through the rugged beauty and vastness of the American landscape, revealing the brutal challenges of railroading, as well as secrets of the art and science of running the greatest trains. Weaving together present-tech and racing steam locomotives, grit, glamour and glorious landscapes, Train Time immerses viewers in a grand tapestry of American railroading.
Climb aboard for the biggest adventure on wheels.
April 8
Antarctica
It is a land of mystery and yet what happens here affects every single one of us. With never-before seen footage, Antarctica brings audiences to the farthest reaches of this wild and majestic continent. It is the coldest, driest and windiest place on Earth with the roughest oceans and yet, weird and wonderful creatures thrive here in astounding abundance.
Dive beneath sea ice, more than 6 feet thick, to experience the alien world of its seafloor—thousands of purple starfish scuttling to escape being entrapped by growing ice and elaborate jellyfish dancing a deadly dance. Swim alongside playful seals, soar above mountain peaks and vast penguin colonies and witness the largest congregation of fin and humpback whales ever filmed.
Although so remote from us, Antarctica and its surrounding Southern Ocean play a vital role for the entire planet, regulating ocean currents, sea levels and its wildlife-filled waters can absorb huge amounts of carbon. New science is revealing that dramatic changes are occurring and rapidly warming this pristine land of snow and ice. No one owns Antarctica but it will take global cooperation and collaboration to protect it and ensure the future health of our planet.
May 20: Ancient Caves
May 20
Ancient Caves
Ancient Caves brings science and adventure together as it follows paleoclimatologist Dr. Gina Moseley on a mission to unlock the secrets of the Earth’s climate in the most unlikely of places: caves. Until recently, scientists had no reliable way to accurately study the climate of Earth’s distant past. Moseley and her team of cave explorers travel the world exploring vast underground worlds in search of stalagmite samples - geologic “fingerprints” - that reveal clues about the planet’s climate history. Their quest leads them to some of the world’s most remote caves, both above and below the water, in France, Iceland, the Bahamas, the U.S. and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where they study how rapidly Earth’s climate can change, and how it has affected human civilization. Together, they go where very few humans will ever go, revealing the incredible lengths scientists will go to study the unknown.
Ancient Caves is an Oceanic Research Group Films production produced with support from the Giant Dome Theater Consortium and presented by MacGillivray Freeman Films.
June 17
A Beatiful Planet
A Beautiful Planet is a breathtaking portrait of Earth from space, providing a unique perspective and increased understanding of our planet and galaxy as never seen before.
Made in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the film features stunning footage of our magnificent blue planet—and the effects humanity has had on it over time—captured by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). From space, Earth blazes at night with the electric intensity of human expansion—a direct visualization of our changing world. But it is within our power to protect the planet. As we continue to explore and gain knowledge of our galaxy, we also develop a deeper connection to the place we all call home.
July 15
Dream Big
Narrated by Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges, Dream Big: Engineering Our World will transform how you think about engineering. From the Great Wall of China and the world’s tallest buildings to underwater robots and solar cars, Dream Big celebrates the human ingenuity behind engineering marvels big and small, and shows how engineers push the limits of innovation in unexpected and amazing ways. With its inspiring stories of human grit and aspiration and extraordinary visuals for the world’s largest screens, Dream Big reveals the compassion and creativity that drive engineers to create better lives for people and a more sustainable future for us all.
Travel from Nepal to Dubai and Australia to Haiti, then to Seattle, San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona, in this new giant-screen film.
Find out the secret that has kept the Great Wall of China standing for centuries.
Learn how engineers help keep buildings safe during earthquakes.
See an underdog robotics team try to beat the odds in a NASA-sponsored competition.
Director and two-time Academy Award nominee Greg MacGillivray says that Dream Big is "an entertaining, visually spectacular film full of stirring human stories that reveal the impact engineers have on our society. We hope it energizes kids of all ages, especially girls, to think about engineering as a meaningful way to help others and leave a positive mark on the world."
August 19
Great Bear Rainforest
Discover one of the rarest animals on earth, the fabled Spirit Bear, hidden from the outside world in one of the planet’s most secluded wildernesses, in the Great Bear Rainforest. Journey to a land of grizzlies, coastal wolves, sea otters and the all-white spirit bear—the rarest bear on earth. Found on Canada’s remote Pacific coast, it is the last intact temperate rainforest in the world—a place protected by the region’s indigenous people for millennia.
November 18
Flight of the Butterflies
The iconic monarch butterfly is a true marvel of nature. It weighs less than a penny, yet it makes one of the longest migrations on Earth across a continent, with pinpoint navigational accuracy, to a secluded place it has never been. In Flight of the Butterflies, you’ll join the monarchs' perilous and extraordinary journey while following an intrepid scientist’s 40-year search to find the monarchs’ secret hideaway. Featuring breathtaking cinematography, an award-winning production team, a true scientific mystery, and hundreds of millions of real butterflies, Flight of the Butterflies soars on the giant IMAX Dome screen.
For the first time ever, witness the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, inside a chrysalis.
Travel to the remote mountain peaks of Mexico and discover the secret overwintering site of millions of monarchs.
Join Dr. Fred Urquhart and his family on a decades-long quest to unravel a scientific mystery.
December 16: TBD
