Tuesday, 5-20-97

It was very cool last night. The temperature got down in the 40s. It was really nice for sleeping. As usual, we took our time getting up and getting around.

Jim had the day off and Steven stayed home from school. So we all went to the "Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center" in Hutchinson, Kansas. Jim drove us in his car, so for a change all I had to do was watch the scenery go by. On the drive to Hutchinson, I enjoyed seeing the fields of green wheat. Sometimes it looked like a big green lake. We saw several charming little farm houses, a couple of which looked like something out of a storybook from a hundred years ago. Our ride took us through Mennonite country. I always like to see their horse drawn buggies. They look very much like the vehicles used by the Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch.

A stretch of the highway we took (K-46) was under construction. The paving technique being used was different than anything I've seen in the past. First a bed of gravel was laid down under pressure. I couldn't determine the thickness of gravel. Then a 3 or 4 inch thick layer of coarse asphalt was put on top of the gravel base. This was followed by a 1 1/2 to 2 inch thick layer of fine grain asphalt. The final layer put down was a 1 to 1 1/2 inch thick continuous ribbon of concrete. The concrete appeared to have only sand in it with no gravel. The surface looked very even.

Gemini Titan

When we arrived at the Cosmosphere, it was immediately apparent there had been some big changes made since our last visit. A Redstone rocket is setup outside with a Mercury space capsule mounted on top. This was the first configuration that the U.S. used to put America's first man in space. There also was a Titan launch vehicle with a Gemini spacecraft on the nose.

A lot of the things we've seen at the museum in the past, such as space suits and moon rocks, were in storage, waiting for new displays to be finished. But we did get to see a lot of new space stuff.

There is a full scale replica of the space shuttle Endeavor in the lobby along with a complete SR-71 Blackbird hypersonic spy plane. Also a real Northrop T-38 trainer is hanging from the ceiling. It was very impressive. Downstairs was a display of the German rocket program of World War 2. There is a V-1 buzz bomb hanging from the ceiling. Nearby is a real V-2 rocket with a few service panels removed to make it possible to view machinery inside the missile. Most of one room is taken up by an Apollo Command Module along with its Service Module, all docked to a Soyuz spacecraft. It was a huge display consisting of full sized test vehicles. We also saw a real Soviet manned Vostok spacecraft showing the burn marks that resulted from the heat of re-entry.

The highlight of the tour, was seeing the actual Apollo 13 Command Module. It is on display downstairs and it also shows the signs of being scorched by the friction with the atmosphere during re-entry.

Apollo 13 command module

It still amazes me that a small city in the middle of Kansas can get such great artifacts of the space race. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is truly a world class space museum. They have one of the largest collections of Soviet space objects outside of Russia.

When we got back home, we all took it easy for a while. Lois and George wanted to treat us to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants. They took us all to Stroud’s where we enjoyed a big family style fried chicken dinner.

After dinner we went back to visit with Lois and George for a while. A good deal of our time was used to play with Pete. We finished the evening watching TV.