We spent our first day of vacation at the Cosmosphere. If you have never been, you should go. I realize it is in the middle of Kansas, but there is just so much history here.
Because we had been here before, we spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon in the museum portion. We saw some things that we did not notice last time we were here – like a canister that contained original quality control documents found in a V-2 rocket fuel tank.
My favorite part of the museum is about the space race. It is interesting to read about each country’s victories and perceived failures. This is an actual Sputnik satellite that never flew in space.
All the history and artifacts are amazing. This is a piece of an actual rock from the moon brought back on the Apollo 11 mission.
My favorite exhibit is the Odyssey Command Module from Apollo 13. This is considered a failure by NASA, but the astronauts returned alive. The Cosmosphere spent two full years restoring the Odyssey.
This is a lunar lander that was built for training purposes.
We finished our day with the movie, “Space Next”, two shows at their Planetarium, and a trip to learn about rockets at Dr. Goddard’s Lab. John even got a chance to floss in infrared.
It was a great day and it was very fun watching the kids. I think they learned a lot more this time!