In our July visit to Hutchinson, Kansas, we learned about the ultimate social distancing. While the floor at the box office told us to wait "one small step" away from the people in front of us, I couldn't help but imagine how people have yearned to break the bonds of earth altogether.
Cosmosphere is an unexpected treasure in the Kansas prairie. We all expect to see rocket and space history in Houston, Huntsville, and Cape Kennedy, very few would expect it in Hutchinson. In fact the building is off the highway, on a side street past a couple of convenience stores and a city park.
When a visitor enters the lobby at Cosmosphere, he is immediately faced with the SR-71A Blackbird and the T-38 Falcon hanging overhead. Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell capsule is also on display here, recovered from the ocean floor after it, infamously, sank shortly after splashdown. Models of a lunar surveyor, the Mars Rover, and a lunar module are also visible from the rotunda.
Cosmosphere is an unexpected treasure in the Kansas prairie. We all expect to see rocket and space history in Houston, Huntsville, and Cape Kennedy, very few would expect it in Hutchinson. In fact the building is off the highway, on a side street past a couple of convenience stores and a city park.
When a visitor enters the lobby at Cosmosphere, he is immediately faced with the SR-71A Blackbird and the T-38 Falcon hanging overhead. Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell capsule is also on display here, recovered from the ocean floor after it, infamously, sank shortly after splashdown. Models of a lunar surveyor, the Mars Rover, and a lunar module are also visible from the rotunda.
We would soon enter the galleries with our tickets. My wife would want to read every display thoroughly, having always possessed a love of space travel, while I just wanted to see real things. While I would read highlights, the greatest distraction was my desire to see the real items, the flown items. I was less interested in models and replicas. Soon I would be immersed in the history of many such items, and surprisingly other world history intertwined with the sciences involved in space travel. I will share more photos on our website in coming days.
