Artemis II astronaut hopes ‘something from this mission’ will go to Kansas Cosmosphere
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- Sen. Jerry Moran invited Artemis II crew to visit the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson.
- NASA administrator Jared Isaacman toured the Cosmosphere and helped reopen its museum.
- Commander Reid Wiseman will accept the invite and hopes to share an Artemis II artifact.
When the Artemis II astronauts return to Earth, they have a standing invitation for another trip — to Kansas.
Sen. Jerry Moran has invited the crew to visit the Kansas Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson.
The Kansas senator spoke to the astronauts Thursday when they took questions from members of Congress during a news conference from space.
Kansas has a direct tie to Artemis. Erik Stalcup, a native of Wellington, Kansas, and graduate of Kansas State University, has been part of NASA’s historic moon mission. He is an engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
Moran told the astronauts he visited the Cosmosphere on Monday with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
It was the NASA chief’s first trip to the museum, where he learned the Cosmosphere is home to the largest collection of U.S. space artifacts outside of the Smithsonian.
Local media reported that Isaacman appeared in awe of the museum’s collection of items that have been in space, particularly the Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. That command module traveled to space in 1970 and was restored at the Cosmosphere, which is now its permanent home.
The museum and science center, founded by New York transplant Patty Carey, began in 1962 as the Hutchinson Planetarium, set up in the poultry building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. It moved to its current location in 1980 and has become a world-renown hub for all things space-related.
During his visit Isaacman helped cut the ribbon on the Cosmosphere’s newly renovated Hall of Space Museum.
“To be here today, surrounded by so much history that we are building upon in this very moment is a real honor,” Isaacman said, according to The Hutchinson News. “What you’ve built here and what you continue to support is important for the state of Kansas.”
During his brief conversation with the Artemis II crew, Moran reminded commander Reid Wiseman that the Cosmosphere is “the place you told me was the best space museum in the world. I’ve repeated that many times.
“I’d like to extend an invitation to each of you to come visit us in Hutchinson and be my guest.”
He also asked the astronauts how the Artemis mission, and the Cosmosphere, will inspire “the next generation for the well-being of the world.”
Astronaut Jeremy Hansen said he will accept Moran’s invitation to visit “because I have yet to see that museum and I have just heard amazing things about it, so I look forward to that opportunity.
“And I hope that maybe something from this mission will end up in that museum at some point in the future.”
As far as inspiring future space explorers?
“I really think it comes down to just getting stuff done,” Hansen said. “You can have an inspiration program, you can invest a lot of money in that, or you can have a program that just goes out and gets things done, like the Artemis program is doing.
“And then you can spend your inspiration program dollars on just disseminating that to the masses. And that is what I see happening here right now. I think we’re knocking it out of the park.”
The Artemis II was scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, at about 7:07 CDT on Friday.
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 12:15 PM.
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