Nonprofit Texas Museum of Science & Technology, or TXMOST, opens its doors as Central Texas’ first science and technology museum March 20 at a temporary location at 1220 Toro Grande Drive in Cedar Park.

TXMOST, formally known as Austin Planetarium, was recently rebranded, and TXMOST Executive Director Torvald Hessel said the new name and the interim Cedar Park location fit with the group’s mission to introduce more Texas residents to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

“We will show exhibits from various sciences and host traveling science and technology exhibits from all over the world as well as feature a planetarium,” Hessel said.

The museum will debut with the traveling exhibit “Body Worlds,” which displays donors’ human bodies that have been preserved through a process called plastination. On March 12 trucks brought 12,000 square feet of exhibits to the new museum location, Hessel said.

By the end of 2015, TXMOST will add a planetarium to the facility, Hessel said.

“It will be the only [planetarium] in the Greater Austin region … the largest in Texas,” he said.

The news comes about five years after Cedar Park leaders reached out to the museum organization about a potential location, said Phil Brewer, Cedar Park economic development director.

“They just couldn’t get the right pieces of the puzzle to fit,” Brewer said. “[Then] I got a call from Torvald Hessel last fall. … We had a very nice meeting, and we talked about some potential sites here in Cedar Park for a permanent facility.”

TXMOST still plans to build a permanent museum somewhere in Central Texas. Hessel said Cedar Park as well as Austin are among the cities being considered for the permanent facility.

But museum organizers believe starting a temporary museum facility with rotating exhibits is the best way to help political leaders and potential donors better understand the group’s mission, he said.

“This is the vision: ‘Look at the happy smiles on the kids’ faces,’” Hessel said. “That’s what we’re trying to do. ... It’s the ultimate in a capital campaign.”

Two other possible locations for interim museums fell through before TXMOST considered the Toro Grande location. Museum staffers already had a relationship with city leaders, and the building’s size of 30,000 square feet and its 35-foot ceilings proved large enough for museum requirements, Hessel said.

During a March 12 meeting of Cedar Park City Council, Mayor Matt Powell said he hopes Cedar Park will also become home for a permanent TXMOST museum.

“As time goes on, we are going to make a heck of a case to have the permanent facility here,” Powell said.

Mel Kirkland, a member of the Cedar Park Tourism advisory board, said the museum could also help promote higher education to Cedar Park students.

“We don’t have a major four-year college in the city,” he said. “So it gives the city a nice higher-education opportunity for people to see what’s out there.”