NASA administrator visits Cosmosphere as Artemis II goes to moon

Charles Rankin | The Hutchinson News

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Houston, Cape Canaveral and Hutchinson, Kansas. Those are the three cities that NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will spend time in while the Artemis II mission heads to and from the Moon, the first crewed flight there in more than 50 years.

Isaacman visited the Cosmosphere for the first time on the morning of April 6 after an invitation from Sen. Jerry Moran. The Kansas senator wanted Isaacman to see what the senator said the Artemis II crew told him was "the best space museum in the world."

The date Isaacman's visit was historic, as that same crew, consisting of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, were set to fly by the Moon later that evening to become the farthest humans away from Earth in the history of spaceflight.

Isaacman awed by display of history at the Cosmosphere

From the moment he stepped foot in the building, the administrator said he was taken back by what he saw. The SR-71 Blackbird is displayed in the main lobby of the Cosmosphere and is what the museum was built around.

Cosmosphere CEO Jim Remar took Isaacman on a tour of the facility, including seeing students from local Hutchinson schools taking part in educational programming that included two separate "explosions" of liquid oxygen inside Dr. Goddard's Lab.

After taking a moment to sign the wall of dignitaries and a photo of his spacewalk while on the private Polaris Dawn mission, Isaacman was taken along for the main attraction, a tour of the Hall of Space Museum.

"We have the largest collection of U.S. space artifacts outside of the Smithsonian and the largest Soviet collection outside of Moscow," Remar said.

The administrator continued to be in awe, seeing the artifacts which includes actual space-flown pieces and meticulous replicas put together by the Cosmosphere staff.

One of those artifacts, a genuine Volga airlock, like the one used by Alexei Leonov during the first spacewalk during the Soviet Voskhod 2 mission, was of particular interest to Isaacman, who made sure to show Sarah Gillis, who joined him on his own spacewalk in 2024.

"I've read the history of things like this, but to see it in person is amazing," he said

Admiring the last crewed spacecraft that took this journey

Another piece of space history that the administrator spent significant time looking at was the actual Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey.

"After spending some time in France, the Cosmosphere worked with NASA, the State Department and the Smithsonian to get it back here to the United States," Remar said. "In 1995, the Cosmosphere did the restoration, reintegrating most of the hardware back into the capsule."

Remar noted the historical moment of Isaacman seeing the capsule on April 6, as it held the record for distance by a crewed spacecraft until Integrity, the capsule of the Artemis II mission was set to break it later that same day.

"Knowing the crew is...getting ready to go on the dark side of the moon later today, being able to share this with the administrator and all of you on this day is pretty spectacular," he said.

Isaacman reflects on past, present and future of spaceflight

Concluding the visit, Isaacman joined Remar, Moran, another special guest Gerry Griffin, former NASA flight director for the Apollo program and others in cutting a ribbon for the museum, which recently finished renovations.

Remar and the senator both spoke afterwards, thanking the administrator for his visit, particularly in the middle of the Artemis II mission.

"I want to thank the administrator...for accepting the invitation, and perhaps even more importantly, keeping the invitation," Moran said. "I think that (he) could have said he has other things to do and we ought to take it as a great honor."

Isaacman also offered comments on his visit, thanking everyone who made it possible and for the visit to the museum and the science education center.

"To be here today, surrounded by so much history that we are building upon in this very moment is a real honor," he said. "What you've built here and what you continue to support is important for the state of Kansas."

Isaacman said he knows that students and children that walk through the museum or join in educational opportunities the Cosmosphere offers will be inspired.

"The Cosmosphere tells the story of the last time NASA took on the challenge of competing against a great rival, a space race," he said. "It reminds us of what we can achieve when America commits itself with competence, ownership and urgency toward accomplishing world-changing objectives."

According to him, that journey more than 50 years ago, inspired many to continue in the footsteps of those who made the Apollo program great.

"With Artemis II, now on a journey around the Moon, we are picking up where Apollo 17 left off," Isaacman said. "But this time, we're no going for the flags and footprints. We're going to build a moon base.

"We will do so for all the scientific and economic potential, but also to master the skills necessary for when the day comes that NASA astronauts undertake the great journey to Mars. And to do that, we have to stay focused on what matters."