1100 North Plum Street
Hutchinson, KS 67501
(800) 397-0330
Cost:
All-Day Mission Pass (The Best Value) - Allows entry to one IMAX film, one planetarium show, one Dr. Goddard's Lab and one admission to the Hall of Space Museum.
Under 3 - Free
Children 3-12 - $15
Adults - $17
Single Venue Ticket - Allow entry to one of the venues listed.
Under 3 - Free
Children 3-12 - $9
Adults - $9.50
Website: http://www.cosmo.org
Review:
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! Load up the kids and take a trip into the heart of the Kansas landscape. Hutchinson is located about 50 miles northwest of Wichita and many are surprised to find such an excellent exhibit of any kind in this part of Kansas.
The IMAX:
This is not the typical IMAX. This IMAX is a domed theater. We enjoyed the story of the Hubble in full realistic views. The film contains two parts. 1)Traveling with astronauts in space while working to repair the Hubble. The challenges they encountered and the immense amount of work and time that went into repairing the Hubble. 2)Enjoying the views from Hubble. The Hubble makes you really take in how immense our universe really is. There are wonderful 3-D views of Hubble itself, anchored to the shuttle Atlantis' payload bay, stunning views of Earth, and the many galaxies surrounding us. A must see!!
Dr. Goddard's Lab:
A bit over the head of the younger kids but very interesting for all adults. This show covers the beginnings of rocketeering in a very eventful fashion. I think the best way to describe this to refer it to an interactive science lab where things do get blown up. Very interesting to learn how, primarily, one man, with no government funding discovered, invented, and patented rocket building. All these pattens were eventually sold to the US government and many are still used in the building of our space shuttles today.
Planetarium:
While the planetarium was very interesting, if you watch the IMAX Hubble (which I highly recommend), it would be a good one to skip and spend a little more time in the museum. Most of the information was also shown during the IMAX movie.
Space Museum:
Unfortunately we ran out of time and did not get to spend a lot of time in the museum. With all that they have to offer I think you could easily spend 3 hours in here without checking out any of the other venues. In light of that I have grabbed a very well written review on the museum.
There are several galleries open to ticket holders. The Cold War Gallery follows the U.S. and Soviet space programs as they began as well as history of the standoff between the two nations. There's the German gallery featuring V-1 and V-2 rockets fro World War II, developed in Hitler's Germany. The Early Spaceflight Gallery follows the development of space exploration by America and other nations. The gallery has a Titan rocket, Gemini X spacecraft and the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury Capsule.
The Apollo flights are some of the most famous. The Apollo Gallery charts each Apollo flights from the technology used to the human dramatic side of the flights. On display is the Apollo 13 command module - Odyssey, a moon rock, replica lunar rover, and a model of the Saturn V rocket.
Food Court:
Very reasonable price and good food. You can ever purchase some astronaut food. We chose the ice cream and the kids thought that it was really cool to eat like an astronaut. The ice cream was OK, some better than others.
Gift Shop:
The gift shop has a very wide selection of souvenirs and memorabilia. Anything from a couple dollars to a couple hundred.
I meant to mention the space museum it not very stroller friendly. The museum is in the basement of the cosmosphere. There is good elevator access at the begining but there are are couple areas that have addition stairs (5-7 steps each) and there is no way around this that I could tell. Then at the end of the museum you can take 2 flights of steps out or go back to the beginning for the elevator access.
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