Space Store

Space Store runs a space shop and experience centre in Oxford's Covered Market. Visitors can try on a replica of the Sokol suit Tim Peake wore, take a virtual reality spacewalk and hold a meteorite. The shop sells space gifts, meteorites and fossils, in person and online.

Stephen Ringler founded it in 2016. He had spent about two decades in the space industry, including concept mission work for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 2014 he moved from California to Oxfordshire and became the space cluster development manager at the Harwell Campus. The idea came to him on a date with his wife, as they walked past a Build-a-Bear in a shopping mall. He asked her why there was no Build-a-Rocket.

Space Store tested the idea with pop-ups around London and Oxfordshire. It opened its first shop, in Didcot, in June 2019, and a second in the Covered Market in July 2022. It also sells space experiences to schools and companies, and runs courses for students from 14, including a two-week summer course at Jesus College, Oxford.

The company says it wants a network of space-themed shops and experience hubs across the UK. Its site lists one location, the Oxford shop.