Hutchinson ? Spring break, the return of the Liberty Bell 7 and the National Junior College Athletic Assn. tournament have combined to make the first few weeks of March prosperous for the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.

“It’s been a great month for us,” said Cosmosphere President Jeff Ollenburger. “We’re excited about that. This week is always a busy week for us, because of the tournament and spring break, but this month has surpassed last March by quite a bit.”

Between March 1 and March 20 just over 17,000 people attended the museum, a 30 percent increase over the same period last year, Ollenburger said.

And while he credits the basketball tournament for enticing a crowd to Hutchinson, Ollenburger said the Liberty Bell 7 has been a big draw.

Liberty Bell 7, the Mercury space capsule that sunk in the Atlantic on July 21, 1961, was restored at the Cosmosphere after its retrieval from the ocean in 1999.

“The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered” opened at the Cosmosphere earlier this month.