Cosmosphere

Cosmosphere is an international science education center and space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States. It is located on the northeast corner of Plum Street and 11th Avenue, next to the Hutchinson Community College. Previously known as the Kansas Cosmosphere, it houses over 13,000 spaceflight artifacts—the largest combined collection of US and Russian spaceflight artifacts in the world.

The Cosmosphere offers many educational programs about space, helping visitors learn about the history and science of space travel. It is a special place for people of all ages to explore and discover the wonders of space exploration.

Facilities

The Cosmosphere started as a planetarium at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in 1962. Today, this huge building covers 105,000 square feet and holds the most Russian space items outside of Moscow, plus many U.S. space items, second only to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C..

The Cosmosphere has five main places to explore: the Hall of Space Museum, the Justice Planetarium, the Carey Digital Dome Theater, Dr. Goddard's Lab where you can see exciting science shows about rockets, and CosmoKids, a fun area for hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math activities. The Cosmosphere also offers summer camps and special learning programs for school groups and scouts.

The Cosmosphere is the only museum in Kansas that is a part of the Smithsonian.

In 2012, the Carey Digital Dome Theater changed from IMAX to a 4K digital system. In 2015, the Justice Planetarium got new digital projectors instead of the old starball system. In 2021, three of the oldest galleries started getting fresh paint and new exhibits.

The Cosmosphere’s SpaceWorks team has fixed and restored real U.S. spacecraft for museums around the world, including pieces for the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Two famous examples are the Apollo 13 Command Module Odyssey, and Liberty Bell 7, both shown at the Cosmosphere. The Cosmosphere also made most of the space items and copies for the movie Apollo 13 and for Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D and the TV series From the Earth to the Moon.

Collection

The Cosmosphere has many important objects from space travel. Some of the things you can see are a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft, the Gemini 10 space capsule, and the Command Module Odyssey from Apollo 13. There is also a special Moon rock from Apollo 11, the first mission to land people on the Moon.

Every object in the museum is either something that was really used in space, a copy that looks exactly like the real one, a model made for testing, or a copy made to look just right for display.

The museum shows how space travel started during World War II, continued through the Space Race and Cold War, and goes on today with the International Space Station, SpaceShipOne, and commercial spaceflight.

Controversy

In 2003, the Cosmosphere found that many items from its collection were missing. The former director, Max Ary, was charged with taking these items and selling them for his own benefit. Items included parts from spacecraft and important pieces from space history.

Ary claimed the items were his own, but he was found guilty in 2005 and sentenced to prison. He served time and was released in 2010, still saying he did nothing wrong.