HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After being on tour around the world for the past six years, Liberty Bell 7 is set to return to the Cosmosphere. The spacecraft, flown by Gus Grissom, will return to Hutchinson Tuesday, June 16. The craft will be on display in the Cosmosphere Grand Lobby through the remainder of 2020.
Visitors will have the opportunity to get up close to an amazing piece of space history when the Mercury spacecraft, which took the second U.S. astronaut into space, returns to its home museum.
The return of Liberty Bell 7 is part of a summer-long celebration of its return along with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission.
Liberty Bell 7 was recovered from the ocean floor in 1999 after spending more than 40 years submerged at a depth of more than 15,000 feet.
SpaceWorks, a division of the Cosmosphere, helped retrieve and conserve the craft to the state it appears in today. Liberty Bell 7 is owned by the Cosmosphere, making it the only privately-owned American spacecraft.
The Cosmosphere is among only four museums worldwide to have a flown set of manned Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.