By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — It started as a curiosity and a dream at the very start of the U.S. space program.
Patty Carey started the Hutchinson Planetarium in the chicken barn at the state fairgrounds. Now the Cosmosphere is preparing to celebrate its 60th year as one of the premier space museums in the world.
“It’s really amazing when you stop and think about it. The Cosmosphere started out 60 years ago in the poultry building on the fairgrounds,” Cosmosphere President Jim Remar said. "I hope Patty (Carey) is looking down and smiling with everything this wonderful organization has been able to accomplish.”
The museum has changed through the years and has survived many economic downturns, the pandemic and even scandal to stay at the top of its game. Remar says that stepping up the Cosmosphere's education reach has been key to its continued growth.
“We’ll always be the museum for space history and space exploration,” Remar said. “But a couple of years ago we decided that if we were going to be that proverbial dot on the wall, we wanted to be known and become the physical and virtual location for STEM education."
Remar says the virtual reach the Cosmosphere has developed over the past three years put the museum at the front of STEM education.
“I think we are,” Remar said. “I think we really in the last couple of years have been able to demonstrate and showcase that both here and virtually we are the go-to for STEM education.”
Over the years, the museum's collection of space artifacts has grown to impressive heights. From actual space-flown artifacts to a piece of cloth from the Wright brothers first flight, the museum is one of only two that has flown spacecraft from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs including the Apollo 13 capsule. The list of guests and supporters is just as impressive from the first Mercury and Apollo astronauts to the astronauts of the space shuttle and International Space Station along with the hundreds of engineers and flight controllers who made it all happen.
As always, the Cosmosphere is never short of big celebrations and this birthday will be no different. The event is called the First and Last Steps and is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 2. The list of honored guests will be impressive.
“We’ll have luminaries such as Charlie Duke, Gerry Griffin, Fred Haise, Steve Hawley, Gene Kranz, Jack Lousma, Harrison Schmitt, and Jeff Ashby, " Remar said. “And that will be a night to celebrate the history of the Cosmosphere.”
More information on tickets and a complete schedule of the event will be announced at a later date.