The Cosmosphere In Hutchinson, Kansas

    Kansas continues to surprise. Hutchinson, Kansas is a small town (pop. 40,006) that, since 1887, has been the site of one of the world's largest salt mines (and the only salt mine in the U.S, that tourists can visit - like, go 650 feet underground and visit via the Strataca salt mine museum). It is also home to the Kansas State Fair (the 2024 edition of which will be held September 6th through 15th) and the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Men's Basketball Tournament (2024's tourney was held March 20th through March 30th- congrats to the Barton Community College Cougars of Great Bend, Kansas on winning their first ever NJCAA Men's BBall championship this year).

   All of the above is fairly remarkable for a town of only forty thousand to boast, but by far the most remarkable thing (IMHO) is the Cosmosphere Aerospace Museum.

   The Cosmosphere (formerly known as the Kansas Cosmosphere - don't know why they dropped "Kansas" from the name) is home to over 13,000 artifacts from both the United States and Russian spaceflight programs, with a emphasis on the cold war era space race. This represents the largest assemblage of items from both the US and Russian (primarily the USSR era) space programs. Quite the accomplishment for a small town in the heart of Kansas.

   Over the past 62 years, the Cosmosphere grew from a small planetarium opened in 1962 on the Kansas state fairgrounds to the artifact and history packed Costco-sized building it is today. The place is massive, and massively interesting. To see more artifacts from the Russian program you'd have to go to Moscow, and to see more artifacts from the United States program you'd have to go the National Air & Space museum in Washington, D.C. 

   In this post I'll show the exterior of the Cosmosphere and a few items seen in the lobby, then I'll follow with a few posts of items in the rooms that are more focused on the early years of the space race.

         Last Steps on the Moon, Bronze Sculpture of Astronaut Eugene Cernan by Garland Weeks

To Fly, Bronze sculpture, Mike Livingston

           Large stained-glass window featuring the Kansas State Motto (and Vitruvian Man homage)