Kansas Cosmosphere - November 6th, 2010

A visit to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum in Hutchinson, Kansas

A Mercury Redstone rocket stands in the front corner

A Titan Gemini rockets stand just around the corner

1 of 5 F-1 engines that powered the Saturn V's 1st stage

Dave high-fives Neil about to make a little history

An SR-71 is the first aircraft encountered inside

Shuttle Endeavour mockup provides administrative space

SR-71A #61-7961 last flight was 2/02/1977

The aircraft is supported by its landing gear struts

Photo of the SR-71 in place before the museum was built

SR-71 pilots also practiced with the low cost T-38

Buy your entry ticket from under Endeavour's wing

This SR-71's pilot, Buz Carpenter, gives a talk under his aircraft to children with parents serving overseas

The SR-71's retired in 1990, a few were reactivated from 1994-1998, and NASA kept three operational until 2001

Look down on Lunar Module in the Hall of Space Museum

Pass the Viking Lander replica on the way to the stairs

The world's first ballistic missle, the V-2, would skim the edge of space at 250,000 ft & nose earthward at 3,500 mph

The V-2 could hurl one ton of high explosives 200 miles silently, traveling faster than its own sound

The Germans spent $3 billion developing the V-2, twice as much as was spent on America's Manhattan Project

V-1 "Buzz Bomb" would fly to its target & drop from the sky

Replica of the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis", the first . . .

aircraft to reach supersonic speed (Mach 1) on 10/14/1947

Redstone Rocket was America's first medium range ballistic missile, a direct outgrowth of the German V-2

America's first true rocket powered nuclear weapon delivery system was test launched in August, 1953

Spacesuit & rocket exhaust nozzle of the X-15 You don't want to stand right here, even with the spacesuit on

Sputnik 1 was the 1st Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on 10/04/1957

Laika was a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, put into a space craft with a week's supply of air, food, & water for a 3 month mission. Laika died in space within Sputnik II days after the 11/03/1957 launch

Explorer 1 was first successful US satellite, launched 1/31/1958 atop the first Juno booster from LC-26

Vanguard 1 was the 2nd successful US satellite launch, on 3/17/1958, and is the oldest artificial satellite still in space

Luna 2, first to impact moon on 9/13/1959, carried two pennant balls designed to burst apart & scatter on impact

Mercury Atlas 1 blew up at 32,000 feet on July 29, 1960 and was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. The connecting collar between the capsule & rocket failed