HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Cosmosphere announced on Wednesday that the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft will make a trip to Kansas City and will be displayed at the Planet Comicon April 22-24, at Bartle Hall. Planet will be the first comicon in the country to exhibit a flown, manned spacecraft.
Piloted by Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, the Project Mercury spacecraft’s sub-orbital flight lasted 15 minutes in 1961 and was a textbook mission until splashdown, when the hatch door prematurely ejected off the craft, filling it with seawater. While Grissom was rescued the LB7 craft sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and stayed there for 38 years before an expedition led by the Discovery Channel and the Cosmosphere recovered it from its resting place at a depth of more than 16,000 feet.
In addition to the generous loan of the LB7 for display, Planet Comicon Kansas City and the Cosmosphere will work together to enhance the science and STEM-based activities at Planet, while also sharing the historical relevance of the LB7 and the Cosmosphere’s spacecraft programming.
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