As of 2008, the EKSC became part of Big Sandy Community and Technical College, which now funds and operates the Science Center..

At one of the first meetings, John Rosenburg proposed an ambitious plan: to build a science center and planetarium similar to the one in Gastonia, North Carolina, his hometown.

Rosenburg had already created the proposal for the East Kentucky Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology, which gained support of State Representative Greg Stumbo.

[2] After outreach education operations in 1997 proved that the majority of population within the region had difficulty in understanding mathematics and science, the organization began developing hands-on programs that would help overcome these issues.

The awarded funds were based on figures provided by a consulting architect working under the assumption that costs were significantly lower than those required for a project built on the campus of a community college.