Hutchinson, Kansas is about fifty miles southeast of the center point of the state and is about forty miles northwest of Wichita.

The city has The Cosmposphere and Space Center. The center is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Thus, the Cosmosphere has several of the hardware, or replicas, used in the rockets and space programs of the U.S. and Russia.

While The Cosmosphere does not have any of the major ships used in space exploration, it does have several interesting ones. For central Kansas, this museum is quite impressive.

The focus of the museum is to show the history of the development of rockets, starting with the German scientists in World War II. After the defeat of Germany, most of the rocket scientists came to the U.S. to continue their work. Russia was very upset with this and began their own rocket development program. Solid results began to take shape in the mid to late 1950's. This led to both the launch of the Sputnik and the Cold War.

Newly-elected U.S. President, John Kennedy, recognized the importance of rockets and ships and space exploration. Thus, he challenged the best and brightest of the scientists to send a man to the moon and return them home safely by the end of the decade (1960's). The rest, as they say, is history.

The U.S. is still the only country to send men to the moon. It also leads in robotic exploration of other planets. The Russians, however, lead in putting astronauts/cosmonauts into orbit around the Earth.