Editor's note: Dr. Janet Kavandi, NASA Glenn’s director, will not be attending the event due to a scheduling conflict.

LOGAN, Ohio -- An astronomy park named for astronaut-hero John Glenn opens this week at Hocking Hills State Park.

The John Glenn Astronomy Park is located about a mile west of the Old Man's Cave Visitor's Center along Ohio Route 664, in Hocking County.

A grand opening ribbon-cutting is scheduled Thursday to coincide with the summer solstice.

Director Brad Hoehne will be joined at the event by Julianne Burroughs, board president of Friends of Hocking Hills State Park; and "Astronaut Harrison," a 6-year-old Columbus boy obsessed with space.

Activities will include sunset viewing, a sky diver and star and planet gazing through the park's powerful telescopes.

Glenn, an Ohio native, died in 2016 at age 95. He was the first American to orbit Earth and a longtime Democratic U.S. senator.