Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center

I absolutely love the COSMOSPHERE! I have been countless times and could probably go many more. Moving to Kansas and getting to go anytime I want now is a plus for me. There is just so many things to see and the IMAX is wonderful! So many exhibits and on one visit I got to watch them reassemble Apollo-​13. If you love space, this is the place for you.

Completely amazing. If you have impatient little ones may not be the best but it’s very informative and the displays are fascinating. Dont forget to try goddards lab and the planetarium. Totally worth it. I will say a playground out front would help a lot. Hint hint. Lol

My gosh, this place is HUGE! Space history buff or not, anyone will find something here to love. Why this is not at the top of the list for best museums in the state, I’ll never know. This is mainly space, US and Soviet, not aircraft. There is an IMAX theater also.
I’m old enough to remember the days of rocket launches, trips to the moon, Apollo-​Soyuz, etc and our dreams of the future. Bring the kids, their eyes will pop at the spacecraft and exhibits.
I enjoyed this much more than the Air & Space Museum in DC. That one is so small and many things are hanging overhead. The Cosmosphere is just fabulous, a rare jewel in Kansas.

Granted I was expecting a small building full of airplanes and old men with remote control planes grumping about the weather, wow was I wrong! As we got within a couple of blocks I saw the tops of the rockets above the tree line and I realized that this was going to be fun!
I would rate the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center as on par or even better than the Johnson Space Center outside Houston. It was well worth the time and if you’ve not been please devote an entire day for it, you’ll need it and you’ll want to have the time to do and see everything!

The Cosmosphere is a great little space museum. Although there’s an SR-​71 displayed in the lobby, this museum focuses mostly on space and not aviation. The SR-​71 is definitely one of the better Blackbird displays. Although difficult to take pictures of, it makes for a great view of the underside not usually seen.
Once in the museum prepare for a great history lesson. The displays are very in-​depth when read in total and gives and excellent review of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It’s the details of the Soviet program that really make this education stand out as most other museums focus on American space flight.
The crowning gem of this museum has to be the restored Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. It was a great surprise to find this excellent piece of NASA history in a museum in Kansas.
Other than the museum there are 4 other ticket add-​ons: The Dome theater, Navigator, planetarium, and Dr. Goddard’s lab.
1) The dome theater a shrunk down OMNIMAX theater. Don’t expect the full OMNIMAX experience, but it has EXCELLENT picture quality.
2) Navigator ride: Caution if you get motion sickness easily as some of the people I saw had green faces when they got out. Make sure you ask the operator for the video selection because the fantasy space one isn’t very good.
3) The planetarium was pretty weak and mostly a slide show. We were told they’re getting a projector upgrade soon and until they do I would skip this.
4) Dr. Goddard’s lab was interesting but mostly for kids. If you’ve completed science class through high school or have a basic understand of space flight this may be a little boring.
Don’t come here expecting a Smithsonian Air and Space Museum lever experience, and remember that unlike the Smithsonian it is NOT free. In fact, it’s rather expensive. Still, for the kids or any Air and Space buff, this place it a must-​go at least once.

What an impressive place to see the history I grew up with.
I remember every flight of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, the near-​catastrophe of Liberty Bell 7, Gemini 8, and Apollo13; I met Gus Grissom just before his flight in the (Unsinkable) Molly Brown of Gemini 3, and felt the intense loss of Gus, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee that terrible evening of January 1967.
I am still impressed by the Titan II GLV on display there.
Being at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center was such a wonderful trip for me, but bittersweet, too. I spent a weekend here between flights in 2012 and loved every minute of it – a great place for adults and children alike. I think I could have spent a month here and still not seen everything. Still, seeing Liberty Bell 7 brought back a flood of memories.
I spent three hours talking with a group of adults and kids about flying and spaceflight (I worked in the Space and Strategic Missile Systems Division of Boeing Aerospace for almost 7 years, in addition to being a pilot for 45 years). It was fun to answer so many questions about «How do you…» and «What’s it like to…» — lighting the fires in many of the minds of the children and teenagers that weekend.
So much to see! An excellent museum, rivaled only by the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston, Kennedy Spaceflight Center in Cape Canaveral, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Nice place, I visited the museum yesterday and the guy who sell the tickets, was not friendly it all, but everything else was great

Great space experience for kids and adults alike. Lots of history about the great race to explore space. Lots of information about failures and success. The dome theater is a great place to catch a documentary. Whatever you do, don’t skip Dr. Goddards lab, very nice little history lesson about the invention of rockets AND they blow stuff up and fire a make shift rocket right in the little theater. Kids love it!

One of the better space places. Little pricy but well worth it. It has some of the real things. Like the lunar vehicle

This is hands down the best museum I have ever been to. New York, Los Angeles — hell no. Hutchinson, Kansas — YES!
The way it’s laid out has a great story-​telling aspect. I usually breeze through some of the lengthy descriptions in museums, but we got hooked right away because the writing was so good and ended up taking the time to read every single thing. You walk through the museum like walking through a history book, the layout is very smart.
And they have some of the most legit space stuff EVER! Real command module from Apollo 13 which they were responsible for putting back together. And a Mercury capsule which the Cosmosphere took responsibility for pulling out of the OCEAN after a few decades with help from the Discovery Channel. They also had a whole set up of the Apollo lunar lander that the NBC Nightly News used during their broadcasts during the Apollo era. And they have Sally Ride’s shorts! And a moon rock!
We planned our roadtrip just to stop here and it’s a decision I am so happy about. I hope you make that decision too!

The best space history museum I’ve ever been to {and I’ve been to many}. More real space equipment than I’ve ever see.

Get on your space-​face!
As postcards from Mars begin to arrive from that super-​cute Rover, you can satisfy your newly-​piqued interest in space exploration at the Kansas Cosmosphere!
It’s actually quite remarkable that such a brilliant museum is in the mid-​west. Like, Kansas? Outer space? Actually, yes.
I have vivid memories of school field trips to the cosmosphere, but on my recent visit I was amazed at the new exhibit on the recently-​terminated space shuttle program (great, witty information labels on this exhibit). Also worth a look is the amazing story of the search for the Liberty 7, now on display at the cosmosphere.
I’m risking the cheese police but I’m saying it anyway:
The cosmosphere is out of this world! Hee hee.

We did not have time to do everything like the IMAX theatre but we were very impressed. Just walking in the door and seeing a real SR 71 in the lobby. Wow that thing is huge.
They had lots of things I never would have thought would have been in Kansas. Including the actual Apollo 13 Odyssey moudule. A must see for anyone.

What’s the good thing about living in Southern California, but being guilted into going to middle-​of-​nowhere-​Hutchinson, Kansas every other year or so to visit your grandparents? THE COSMOSPHERE! I’ve been here at least ten times over the course of my life, and it’s just as exciting as an adult as it was as a child… only now I have the added nostalgia that eeks from my childhood memories.
This town is literally in the middle of nowhere, but somehow the Cosmosphere has become a world class, Smithsonian affiliated, NASA certified museum. They have things like the actual Apollo 13 capsule, the Sputnik II (which never launched), a full size replica of a space shuttle, and more! This place is huge and is definitely worthy of big city status.
Don’t forget to go to the gigantonormous IMAX theater or see an observatory show!
AWESOME.

The cosmosphere can only be described as epic. The imax theater is the only theater in the world like it. It has a dome shape and the movie wrapped around me. But the thing that was the most shocking to me was the hall of space museum. Apollo 13! Liberty Bell 7 which by the way is the only spacecraft owned by a museum. I could list everything out for you but then it wouldn’t be a surprise. A quick tip: when you walk by the launch pad replica, directly to the right is Yuri Gagarins actual headset and ekg machine. How do we have that? Be sure to check out the gift shop its got some great stuff

Very well done space museum. Lots to see. I was expecting less.

I stopped at the Cosmosphere on my way to Minnesota from Texas last summer. It was, in a word, the most amazing experience of my life. I’ll grant you, managing to get out of the car and wander for a couple of hours when you’ve been driving for 8 hours is excellent in the first place, but the Cosmosphere could not have been better.
My main memory is literally dropping to my knees when I saw the Apollo 13 command module Odyssey. Being a kid when the movie Apollo 13 came out, that’s something that’s been burned into my memory. After I saw the movie, I was determined to be an astronaut (we can all see how well that turned out), and did as much studying as I could about space and NASA and the history of space exploration (I’m sure being raised on Star Trek certainly didn’t help with my fantasies of travelling in space).
Along with space artifacts, I got to see a piece of the Berlin Wall. I could have reached out and touched it, but first of all, I was raised to never touch things in museums, and secondly, I was a little terrified to touch such a huge piece of history.
I plan to go again this summer, this time with my space-​loving boyfriend in tow. I just hope I haven’t talked it up too much to him, but if other Unilocalers think it’s just as awesome, I think I’m pretty safe.

After seeing talk of a planetarium plans for Austin, I remembered one of my most favorite places I have ever experienced!
The Cosmosphere!
Countless field trips, a pass through roughly once a year and it still never got old. There wasn’t a lot to see and do in good ol Kansas as a kid, but the Cosmosphere will always hold a special place in my heart!
Imax movies are the BEST here! The screen is like a big bubble and you are basically surrounded by the film. Films are great to see there, but one of my favorite experiences I had there was getting to see a tour of the sky. It showed us all of the constellations and marvels of the night sky.
In a place like this you can only imagine what creative and awesome things you can find in the gift shop.
I have to say, my favorite thing in the entire place is half of the first moon rock ever brought back from space. The other half is in the Smithsonian.
This little hidden treasure is worth making a trip to see. I can’t wait to see the additions that have been added since the last time I was there! They are always adding something awesome!
Yay for space nerds!

A little diamond in the rough I must say! Spent the afternoon there and toured the museum, IMAX and planetarium. Only drawback to the planetarium… nappy time! We were out when the lights went out.
The IMAX was cool, a little domey, we watched Forces of Nature. The shows were 45 minutes long and we scheduled it just right to take everything in.
Visited Dr. Goddard’s lab and it was a cool rocket presentation.
There’s a little snack bar that’s nice but if you can wait to chow on some Bogey’s I would do that.
Nice way to ring in the New Year!

I grew up in Hutchinson, and yearly field trips to the Cosmosphere make up a big part of my childhood. After visiting again for the first time after 5 years, I was impressed all over again. It is very hard to believe a place like this can be found in Middle-​of-​Nowhere, KS!
The Cosmosphere started out as a small planetarium at State fairgrounds After a few years it outgrew the facilities and moved to its current location and now has a space artifact collection second only to the Smithsonian.
Some of the sights: A giant moon rock, the Apollo 13 Command Module, a 109-​foot Titan rocket. Ooh, and the SR-​71 Blackbird, the fastest plane ever built, suspended from the ceiling in the entryway is very impressive. My senior prom was held there, right underneath the Bird!
Be sure to catch a movie at the IMAX theater, but if you have a weak stomach, make sure you have something to barf into. And buy some space ice cream!