Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand Announce $500,000 Support for the Hudson River Museum’s Planetarium and Next Generation of Explorers

Yonkers, NY, February 10, 2026—U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, announced last week that they have successfully secured $500,000 for the Hudson River Museum’s Planetarium, which will preserve a vital STEM education hub that reaches over 15,000 students and 80,000 visitors annually. As the only public planetarium between NYC and Albany, this funding will advance scientific literacy, innovation, and workforce readiness. For the local community, the Hudson River Museum and its Planetarium are irreplaceable launchpads for curiosity and opportunity. 

This support is part of the approved $29,398,000 in federal funding for community projects in the Hudson Valley, signed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 Consolidated Appropriations bill. The senators personally secured funding for these projects through congressionally directed spending. Read the press releases from Senator Schumer’s and Senator Gillibrand’s offices. 

“For generations, the Hudson River Museum and its planetarium have inspired New Yorkers to look towards the sky and expand the horizons of their knowledge. As the only planetarium of its kind between New York City and Albany, it fosters the curiosity of schoolchildren, adults, and patrons from the Hudson Valley and around the world,” said Senator Schumer. “I’m proud to deliver $500,000 in federal funding to ensure new state-of-the-art technology can be implemented to preserve and expand learning opportunities for all New Yorkers.”

“The Hudson River Museum’s Planetarium is a treasure in the Hudson Valley,” said Senator Gillibrand, member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “This money will make a difference to help modernize the Hudson River Museum’s Planetarium and will allow the museum to reach more students and adults interested in STEM. I’m proud to have fought to secure these funds, and I’ll keep working to bring more federal dollars home for projects like these that serve as an irreplaceable launchpad for curiosity and opportunity.”

Masha Turchinsky, the HRM’s Anita K. Hersh Director and CEO, stated, “The Hudson River Museum is deeply grateful to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand for their strong advocacy in securing $500,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending for our Planetarium. This essential investment enables the Museum to remain current with scientific discovery and deliver state‑of‑the‑art astronomy experiences for all museumgoers, while strengthening education and scientific partnerships across our New York region and beyond. We are thrilled for this historic opportunity to expand our capacity to illuminate the vast universe above us—where millions of stars continue to spark wonder and understanding for all who visit.”

About the HRM Planetarium
The HRM’s 120-seat digital Planetarium is the only public planetarium in Westchester County. In 2025, visitors from 44 states, 1,073 zip codes, and thousands of schoolchildren from more than 70 districts came to experience our rotation of shows for children and adults, including our live show The Sky Tonight, where planetarium educators give a tour of the sky as seen from our area. Shows range from topics such as visible planets, bright stars, and the Milky Way, to periodic comets, seasonal constellations, upcoming rocket launches, meteor showers, and more. The Planetarium also hosts astronomy experts, laser shows, and site-specific performances inspired by the night sky. 

The HRM Planetarium is a hybrid system that combines the analog realism and clarity of the starfield produced by the Ohira-Tech Megastar II star projector—which can project up to 20 million stars—with the flexibility and capability of the Definiti 4K digital dome video system. Science educators have access to an up-to-date database of every major astronomical object known, and can navigate the universe in real time. The motions of the Sun, Moon, planets, nearby stars, and a quarter of a million asteroids and comets can be run a hundred thousand years into the future or the past, or any date within that range can be instantly accessed and displayed on the planetarium’s 40-foot dome.