All aboard the UK Star Tours ride at The National Space Centre in Leicester, a little dark ride hidden gem that deserves your attention!
Star Tours at Disney is an incredible machine designed by Rediffusion Simulation and opened in 1987 at Disneyland.
There are links to Rediffusion Simulation in the history of Simworx who are the makers of the Tetrastar Spaceport attraction that resides at The National Space Centre in Leicester.
This ride is the UK’s very own Star Tours ride.
Star Tours cost $32 million to make so let’s just dial the expectations back when it comes to Tetrastar Spaceport because it certainly didn’t cost that much to bring this unique space travelling tour to fruition.
This immersive experience takes guests through a 25-minute immersive storytelling journey where you walk through realistic sets, and immerse yourself in interactive group activities before sitting down at your craft and journeying to lands far far away.
You are boarding a cosmic holiday to space that ends up as a rescue mission to Mars and the motion simulator ride created by Simworx contains 20 motion seats with interactive buttons.
As the shuttle takes off the motion simulation is very realistic and the cockpit is beautifully designed to fully immerse you into the experience. This real-time synchronisation to the content on screen gives you realistic feelings of weightlessness.
With hands-on tasks to complete to retrieve objects and a wonderfully immersive experience that ends in another motion simulator-style escape pod, you wouldn’t expect to see an attraction of this calibre at a Space Centre.
It really was fun for all ages and I was completely immersed in my surroundings from start to finish. The interaction between our guide and the digital computer system was great and the tasks were hands-on further throwing you into the story.
Simworx has developed a lovely ride system for this attraction and whilst it’s not as immersive in terms of its movements as Star Tours, it’s more than good enough for the attraction it resides at.
It’s a little unknown gem in the UK and deserves your attention.
The UK’s very own Star Tours ride.
Tetrastar Spaceport – National Space Centre, Leicester from SIMWORX on Vimeo.
