Professional Pilot, January 2016
ALEX REMEMBERS a personal memoir Cosmosphere a fabulous space museum located in Hutchinson KS Kansas Cosmosphere began as a Planetarium in 1962 and expanded to its present facility in 1976 in Hutchinson KS By Alex Kvassay Former salesman for Beech and Learjet I have seen the space exhibits at the Smithsonian in Washington DC and at the space museum in Moscow But in my opinion neither of them comes close to the unique space memorabilia and space history displayed at the Kansas Cosmosphere The only disadvantage is that this fabulous institution is located in Hutchinson a small town in Kansas 60 miles northwest of Wichita which in itself is considered the end of the world by many Since I have been for many years a friend and supporter of this museum I feel qualified to write about it I remember what Bill Lear often said Any publicity is good no matter how bad And this museum needs a lot more publicity to attract more visitors 34 PROFESSIONAL PILOT January 2016 L R Alex Kvassay with Apollo XV Astronaut Charles Duke Apollo XVII Astronaut Harrison Schmitt 3 times Space Shuttle Pilot Joe Engle and Steven Hawley 5 times US Space Shuttle crew member This photo was taken at the Cosmospheres 50th anniversary dinner in 2012 Patty Cary of the Hutchinson Cary Salt Mines founded the Cosmosphere in 1962 as a planetarium It was greatly enhanced into todays Cosmosphere in 1976 First Ill describe what there is to see in the museum In the museum lobby there is an actual Lockheed SR71 Blackbird and a full size replica of a Space Shuttle Theres is plenty of material about Dr Robert Goddard the father of our space program There are originals of German V1 and V2 rockets the terror weapons of Adolf Hitler with an interesting map showing where all the V2s impacted in England Theres a full size replica of the Bell X1 in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 Also on This is the original ill fated Apollo XIII capsule It was rescued from a museum in France where it was rusting away and shipped back to the US to be refurbished at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center Full sized replica of the joint Soyuz Apollo mission spacecraft launched in 1975 which enabled Astronaut Deke Slayton to finally fly in space
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