Te Papa chief executive Seddon Bennington is defending the cost of the museum's $6 million multimedia exhibit.
The exhibit, which includes two motion simulation rides, has an entry price of about $10.
Critics say the area given over to the Our Space exhibit should have been used to show more of the museum's 13,000 works of art.
Mr Bennington says the exhibition, which replaces the Time Warp exhibit, will run for up to eight years, by which time the museum will have recovered much of the investment.
