What is the purpose of this museum? The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, is home to the second largest collection of U.S. space memorabilia in the country, second only to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The Cosmosphere also houses the largest collection of Russian space memorabilia outside of Moscow. The Cosmosphere is also one of three museums in the world to house spacecraft from all three of the first manned U.S. space programs. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center grew from humble beginnings. The Cosmosphere was founded by Patricia Brooks Carey who aspired to create the first public planetarium. The Hutchinson Planetarium opened in 1962 inside the Poultry Building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. The first planetarium consisted of a used star projector and rented seating. In 1966, the planetarium moved to the Hutchinson Community College Campus. Just ten years later, the Hutchinson Planetarium began planning its expansion. To expand, the Hutchinson Planetarium board of directors sought advice from Max Ary who had worked at the planetarium as a student. Ary was the director of the Noble Planetarium in Fort Worth and was part of the Smithsonian committee that placed tens of thousands of space artifacts in museums at the end of the Apollo space missions. In 1980, the Hutchinson Planetarium launched as the Kansas Cosmosphere and Discover Center and housed permanent exhibition galleries in the Hall of Space Museum, had one of the world's first OMNIMAX theaters, and was the planetarium that set the standard for other space museums around the world . In 1997, the museum expanded to its current size, a staggering 105,000 square feet. This expansion tripled the size…half the paper…space missions and provided campers with real-world, hands-on training, similar to the training provided at NASA facilities. By helping to provide educational and entertainment services, the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center reaches thousands of people each year, enriching them with knowledge about the history of spaceflight programs in the United States and the former Soviet Union. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center also allows museums around the world, as well as prop houses, to restore and replicate authentic spacecraft for their exhibits and production sets. As the only Smithsonian-affiliated museum outside of Washington, D.C., the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center allows visitors to explore space without having to travel to the nation's capital. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center will continue to educate and entertain many people for years to come.