Apollo is a unique Intamin multi-launched rollercoaster themed around the NASA Apollo program of the 1960's and 1970's. The ride features a unique pre-launch sequence to setup the vertical launch that takes riders from 0 to 30 mph while accelerating straight up 1.8 g's. At the bottom of the 160 ft twisting top hat, riders reach a maximum speed of 66 mph. Following a first half with novel turnaround element, riders get to experience the lunar landing before blasting through a second launch, this time to 50 mph. After traveling over 5,000 ft of track, riders are finally returned to the station.
This ride is a request from my son who is obsessed with space and rockets, especially the Saturn V. I began work on the ride in 2021 with design of the custom train. After on-and-off work for a year, I began more in-depth work in 2022 hoping to complete the ride in time for the NL Roundup 500 contest. Apollo heavily utilizes custom scenery and scripting. All aspects of the ride from the block controller, to the object animations, to onboard audio, to the physics-based tower ride are controlled by over 5,000 lines of NL2 scripts.
If you want to see some "behind the scenes" of Apollo, I made a couple videos looking at how Apollo came together and works!
A look into Apollo's layout: https://youtu.be/CUwOAs1Quq4
A look into Apollo's scripting: https://youtu.be/4CASQmzy_YA
Music Credit:
End Titles by James Horner from the soundtrack of the original motion picture Apollo 13
Age of Discovery by Immediate Music
Voices from Original Apollo XI mission control recordings. Recorded from www.apolloinrealtime.org
Speech by US President John F. Kennedy recorded from www.jfklibrary.org
