The Cosmosphere is located in Hutchinson, Kansas just about three hours from Kansas City or an hour from Wichita. As of this posting, June 2024, parts of the museum are under construction. They are offering a price break while that is happening, should be open late 2024. They also have an All Access Pass that includes one documentary show, planetarium, Navigator simulator, and Dr Goodard’s Lab along with the museum. Also note if you are a Reno County resident, you get into the museum and CosmoKids for free. Really watch the times, if you are just a minute late you can’t get in.
Walking into the Cosmosphere, you will already be immersed into the space of the museum as you walk under a plane. The Navigator Simulator is in the lobby. It holds seven people and is about five minutes long. This was a really exciting experience to do with my kids as you ride in a Blue Angel airplane.
While we were there, the documentaries were Cities of the Future, Space New Frontier or Blue Whales. We saw Cities of the Future. This wasn’t what I expected it to be about but it was good. It followed a kids team in a competition about what the future needs and how we can achieve it. Most of the shows are about 45 mintues long. Take this into account if you want to do it all to get there early enough. We sadly missed the planetarium because we couldn’t make it through it all.
The Dr. Goddard’s Lab is a live show either about chemistry atoms, matter, and elements and what happens when they are together. Then the Goddard show goes back to the 1930s and the start of the rockets.
Hall of Space Museum
The bottom level is called Hall of Space Museum and includes cosmokids and all the exhibits. Cosmokids is great for kids to learn interactivity. There is building and shooting off their own rockets as well as a marble spiral and foam building blocks. Cosmokids is located on the bottom level with the museum.
As you enter you see the X-plane. This is the plane that started testing experimental in the airspace. There are several exhibits ranging from a V-1 rocket bomb, the x-plane, areas about Cold War, seending humans to space, and Apollo. It starts with WWII and the German War Machine talks about rockets and planes being part of the war and how bombs changed the landscape of fighting and operation paperclip. See items like Me-163, V-1, and V2 Rocket Engine.
I love seeing all the items and what they look like up close not from pictures of airspace first aid kits, tools, and uniforms. There are also pictures of space photography and how they were taken from different cameras. The Apollo 13 capsule is here as well. It has information about how Apollo was so popular when televisions started introducing the public to space flight. In the 60s, a television camera was still 60 pounds and the size of a brief case. Instant video and pictures were able to be shown instead of being delayed till after the mission was complete.
Don’t forget to check out who formed NASA and information about our visits to the moon. Also, who kept beating us in the race to space and more. There is a lot of information to read, which can make the visit slower. If you have kids who like to look at cool pieces of history, it can make the visit slower. Don’t forget to check out the moon rock.
If you are in Hutchinson, check out the Salt Mine also. But explore Wichita with these places too.
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