The Kansas Cosmosphere has hired a consultant to help determine why attendance is falling at the space attraction in Hutchinson.

Cosmosphere president Jim Remar says the center hired Boston-based Verner Johnson Inc. to help the museum develop a plan for its future.

Venue ticket sales at the Cosmosphere have dropped 21 percent between 2007 and 2012. Attendance dropped below 200,000 last year for the first time since at least 1992.

The numbers represent how many venues people visit, such as the planetarium and the theater, rather than actual visitors. The Cosmosphere doesn’t count actual visitors.

Verner Johnson is scheduled to present its recommendations by March.

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Associated Press information from: The Hutchinson News