Eurosat

"All engines running!" Surrounded by the thundering noise of the jet engines another train plunges down to the final frontier of space, and that every 37 seconds. Eurosat is the name of the space-themed enclosed roller coaster at Europa-Park, dominating the skyline of the park with its huge silver sphere since the late 80's and beloved by both fans and normal visitors. This year, the ride celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The sphere at Epcot (Orlando)

More than 30 years ago in 1975, a very special roller coaster opened at the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World, Florida: Space Mountain offered its riders a roller coaster ride in the dark with many special effects to create the illusion of a flight through space. The result - a combination of roller coaster ride in complete darkness and outer space theme - was a sensationally new experience at that time and was used soon afterwards by amusement parks around the world as a starting point for their own creations. The fascination for space travel remained unbroken during the eighties in both the United Stated and Europe. And so it came that the German entrepreneur Franz Mack wanted to offer that experience of a flight through space to the visitors of Europa-Park as well. The new roller coaster was being produced by Mack-Rides as almost every other attraction of the park and constructed inside a special iconic building, just like Space Mountain. The inspiration for that building has its origins at Walt Disney World as well: The landmark of the Epcot theme park is a giant geodetic sphere which fitted perfectly to the desired futuristic and iconic look of the new attraction at Europa-Park - the park eventually used a scaled-down version without completing the lower half of the sphere.

Franz Mack with the Eurosat model

The station

However, the small footprint of the new attraction created a general problem with space: How should the train be taken to the top? Vertical lifts were technically too advanced at that time, a traditional chain lift would have been way too long. Mack-Rides already invented the solution many years ago at the beginning of the 20th century when the company built a spiral lift in one of their wooden roller coasters. This lift system consists of a central rotating element and the track that leads upwards in a spiral around that element. This element has steel beams attached to it in regular distances while a wheel is attached on the train to the side facing the steel beams. The train enters the lift and the steel beam of the central element pushes the wheel and therefore the train upwards the spiralling track.

After 10 months of construction the ride finally opened at July 14th, 1989. Together with the opening of the new French themed area, the "Quartier Francais", the first silver-coloured train of the new roller coaster Eurosat started a journey through space. The longest, highest and most spectacular roller coaster at Europa-Park during that time was born. But before taking a ride you have to join the queue. The line moves quickly back and fourth through the covered waiting area, coming closer and closer to the large characters displaying "EUROSAT" which are mounted on the wall. Soon we stand in front of an escalator, which takes us up into the space station. On the way to the top an astronaut waves at us while standing next to his moon vehicle. Once we have entered the space station we follow a corridor that leads upwards again in a three-quarters spiral. For preparation of our forthcoming journey we can catch a glimpse of a radar, pictures of space shuttles and some control terminals. Very quickly we arrive at the station, illuminated in the same blue light as the corridor. Every once in a while we sense some shaking and hear screams coming from one of the trains that is taking a flight above us. We have to decide ourselves for one of eight rows of the train and take a seat shortly afterwards - the journey can begin!

Start of the spiral lift

First of two block brakes

The train slowly moves to the waiting position. We listen to an announcement that informs us that our space shuttle is requesting takeoff clearance and asks us to refrain from smoking and to keep our hands inside in case of any sudden meteor showers. Then our flight begins. The train slowly takes the spiral lift in almost complete darkness, accompanied by flashing lights and a techno soundtrack - the tension increases. The music varies the higher our train climbs, from an instrumental part to the actual soundtrack that plays inside the sphere. Finally the countdown starts, stars appear in our field of vision and after the "zero" and the thundering noise of the engines we plunge down into the pitch-black depths of space. What follows is a very turbulent ride with several wide turns, unexpected small dips and forceful directional changes. Our sense of orientation is already lost after a few seconds while the train speeds through the cosmos in left and right turns, passing comets, stars and green laser beams. The ride won't give us one second to breathe and gets more and more intense. Soon we are literally thrown to the left side before the train takes a very tight helix. After some more seconds flight through space we suddenly pass through an illuminated tunnel down into the last turn. Only a few seconds left, the train gets closer and closer to some meteors, speeds past an astronaut and before we even realize what's going on we come to a very sudden stop. Lights flash all around us, we hear a load crashing noise together with a launched ejection seat - a very ungentle landing into the final brakes of the roller coaster but absolutely fitting to the wild character of the ride. Only a few meters left before we finally return from our space adventure back into the station, where 16 new passengers are waiting to get their turbulent flight.

Model of Eurosat

The wild ride took about 70 seconds but thanks to the lengthy spiral lift the total ride time is 207 seconds - about 3 ½ minutes. A good capacity ensures short waiting times and is reached by many trains. From the total number of 7 trains 6 can be used at the same time. Each one has 8 cars for 2 people, thus taking 16 riders. The short single-row cars give the trains the necessary flexibility to navigate the heavily twisted track layout. For being able to operate that amount of trains at the same time the actual roller coaster part between first drop and final brakes is interrupted by two block brakes. While the first one does not slow the train down in normal operation the second block brake has a trim brake right before it. It doesn't automatically activate at a specific speed of the train however but can be manually switched on or off and regulated in its intensity by the ride technicians. Unfortunately with an active trim brake the difference in speed during the last part of the ride is clearly perceptible and the ride experience cannot keep up with the first two thirds anymore.

One of seven trains

With all 6 trains on the track and every seat in every train occupied the ride reaches a capacity of over 1500 persons per hour. Thereby it doesn't matter if one train takes a bit more or less time for boarding in the station: The distance between two trains is synchronized at the waiting position for the spiral lift, with 6 trains the interval is about 37 seconds. Dispatching times in the station are another typical trademark of Eurosat. Sometimes a train stands only a bit more than 10 seconds in the station and therefore gets dispatched in an unusual short period of time. This is possible because the staff members don't have to actively check the safety bars - a sole visual control of the closed lap bars is enough. After all there are no negative G-forces despite the wild ride and the lap bars serve mainly the purpose to prevent riders from standing up.

Surface of the sphere

The ride has the same track layout since opening day, only a few track pieces have been replaced over time. Few effects were in place at the beginning but more and more have been installed during the years and make Eurosat the experience of today. That includes several comets, stars, flashing lights, green lasers and more. Also for the season of 2000 the synthesizer-soundtrack that existed since opening day was being replaced by a faster paced techno soundtrack.

For specific events Eurosat offers a different experience for a limited time. The first striking difference is always the transformation of the silver sphere to a giant football, a gift sphere or a giant pumpkin. But the changes don't stop there and continue inside: For the football world championship 2006 every train was sent to the final frontier of space with football fan chants and during Halloween or Christmas new effects and an adjusted seasonal soundtrack take care of a frightening or festive ambiance.

Technical Facts
Manufacturer:	Mack Rides GmbH & Co. KG Waldkirch, Germany
Opening:	July 14th, 1989
Height:	25,5 meters
Length:	1050 meters
Topspeed:	60 km/h
Ride duration:	207 seconds
Trains:	7 trains, 8 cars per train, 16 riders per train
Height of sphere:	45 meters, self-supporting sphere
Surface of sphere:	4.500 m²
Structure of sphere:	1500 pyramid-shaped plates, 28 different plates, 2275 connection beams

The astronaut waves goodbye

Eurosat is a beloved classic attraction at Europa-Park. Although the 20 year old roller coaster cannot compete with its neighbourhood rides anymore in terms of height, speed or smoothness it sure delivers the same thrilling and fun ride experience as many years ago. Several million visitors every year are still taking their turbulent flight through space that no one will ever forget.

Happy Birthday, Eurosat - to the next 20 years!