NASA exhibit draws thousands during Cape visit

The NASA "Space Station Imagination" exhibit drew 8,927 visitors during its five-day stay in Cape Girardeau last week.

Coming from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the exhibit drew nearly 1,200 visitors on its opening. That was well above the 400 average expected for a city the size of Cape Girardeau, said Jackie Wortmann, coordinator of the NASA Educator Resource Center at Southeast Missouri State University. The center helped sponsor the exhibit.

"We went in thinking that we would do well, but not this well," Wortmann said.

The exhibit, which provided a glimpse of what life and work are like aboard the orbiting International Space Station, was housed in two trailers and parked on the Schnucks Supermarket parking lot at 19 S. Kingshighway.

"We had over 2,000 visitors each of the last two days," Wortmann said.

Many of the visitors were children, bused to the exhibit by area schools, she said. Some schools scheduled visits, others just showed up.

"It was pretty amazing," said Wortmann.