The New Magellan Opens at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. Imaginarium Theater.

Magellan Mission Control Staff for Launch Day of the Magellan II
Nicole VandenBos, Audrey Henriksen, Lissa Hadfield, and volunteers.

Villains beware, the Magellan has returned and no asteroid field, nebula, or other hiding local will keep you safe for long.

Congrats again to our awesome staff and volunteers who work so hard to get each of our ships up and running. Our Saturday's have been booked out for weeks even as we add more simulators to the fleet. It is no small feat and they do it all with a smile on their faces.

The New Magellan

Here are the Magellan II's first crews.

A Tribute to the First Magellan and All Its Glory (You gotta love those strawberry iMacs)

A tribute to the first Magellan. It's last flight before the 2005 remodel.

The Magellan opened in 1999. Notice the IMacs were all the same color - raspberry.  That uniform color took a day's work. The original Magellan computers arrived at Central School in different colors. We had raspberry, lime, tangerine, and blueberry.  What a disaster for the bridge.  What would people think walking into the Magellan and seeing a smorgasbord of computer colors?  Mr. Adams, Central's principal, and I loaded up the lime, tangerine, and blueberry computers into the back of his pickup and drove to most of the district's elementary schools asking if we could swap our computers for their raspberry computers. The principals were very obliging.  We had our raspberry bridge.

      Of course, what we didn't know was that the computers were assigned to schools and their serial numbers recorded on the district's database. Dan Adams and I really messed up - causing the good folks at technology several hours of re entering serial numbers.  We asked for forgiveness but were not willing to take the computers back!

     With the article I'm including a few historical photos. Below are the last pictures taken of the original Magellan before the redesign and construction of the Magellan you know today. These pictures were taken on the evening of November 26, 2005. 

     This was the final private mission staff. The Magellan closed that night so construction of the new Magellan could start on November 27th.  I don't know everyone's names, but this is what I know. Left to right standing top:  ?,   Megan Warner, Sam Brady,  ?  ,  BJ Warner.
Front row:  Warren Nuila, Metta Smith, Steven Bristow, and Josh Babb. Josh was the Flight Director, Metta was second chair. The rest wanted to be there for the final goodbye to a wonderful set.    

Josh Babb in the Magellan's Flight Director position.  Notice in those days the flight directors sat facing second chair.

Steven Bristow and Warren Nuila folding the Magellan's uniforms at the end of the last mission.  

    The last picture.  What a team. What great memories. Megan's face sums it up..... Does anyone know who the two young volunteers were?

     The remodelled Magellan opened in the spring of 2006 and closed permanently for demolition in May 2020.  

     The Magellan has always had a history of great story telling.  That tradition will continue with the new Magellan. 

Welcome to the fleet of Space EdVentures simulators Magellan II.   

Mr. Williamson 

Imaginarium Theater Archives

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Come See the New Christa McAuliffe Space Center. Open House on May 8. Lion's Gate Space Center has a New Website. Imaginarium Theater

 

     Don't forget to come by and say hello to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center's new simulators, planetarium, staff, and volunteers this Saturday, May 8 from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.  I'd love to see you old time staff and volunteers.  If you're lucky you'll get to meet the oldest staff from 30 years ago!  Yes, we're still around, and yes we still haunt this place from time to time (most Saturday afternoons for me).   

Mr. W.   

Lion's Gate Space Center at Lakeview Academy Gets a Website Makeover

Nathan King did a good job on this makeover.  The Lion's Gate Space Center is open for private missions and booking summer camps.  Stop by and browse through their new website.  

Imaginairum Theater

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The USS Cassini Opens at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. The Space Place at Renaissance Academy Welcomes Back the Voyager's Student Staff and Volunteers. Virtual Field Trips at the Space Center. Imaginarium Theater.

One by one the six new starship simulators are opening at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove.  The Cassini set sail with her first crew Saturday morning, April 17 under the watchful care of Jon Parker, Set Director.  

One thing you'll appreciate about the Cassini is the generous room allocated the simulator's control room.  There is room to stretch out and relax along with extra room for visiting guest observers.  The Cassini is power by Alex Anderson's Thorium software.  

Does the Cassini's Bridge layout look familiar?  Fans of the Space Center's first starship Voyager should see comparisons. 

The Cassini was inspired by the Voyager.  You have your center stations flanked on the left and right by the left wing and right wing stations.  The Voyager's stations were on different levels.  The Cassini's stations are all on the same level as per the architect's instructions.  Regardless, the  spirit of the Voyager is there in the design.  

In addition to the layout, Jon Parker has another goal for the new Cassini. Jon wants the Cassini to bring back the Voyager's old missions from the last three decades.  I stopped by the visit Jon and the Cassini Friday and found him telling "Cry from the Dark" to a young birthday party group.

The First Crew of the Cassini

The Cassini has a small engineering room just off the bridge.

The room is equipped with one of the Center's new dial and switch panels.        

 

Mason Edmondson helps a young officer learn his station on the 
Cassini's maiden flight.

Speaking of "Cry from the Dark", I enjoyed hearing Jon lead the crew through the mission.  I wrote "Cry.." years ago as a school field trip mission, and just as long ago since I've directed the mission.  Jon runs those old flight just the way I did all those years ago.  It's like stepping into a time machine when I watch him flight direct.  The old ways are the right ways for sure!  

Jon, Mason, Miranda and volunteer telling "Cry from the Dark"

The young Voyager captain thinking through the problems the Ferengi are giving him.
This is the part of the story where the Ferengi captain is about to spit out of anger.

The crew through the ship's monitoring camera.

The Cassini is open for private missions.  Visit the Space Center's web site to book one for yourself and friends.  Time to relive those old Voyager missions! 

The Space Place at Renaissance Academy Welcomes Back the Voyager's Student Staff and Volunteers

Bracken Funk, Lajana Funk, and Parriss King were busy Friday getting the Starship Voyager ready to fly. Bracken has been busy with the ship's Thorium software. His goal is to make the Voyager automated enough so one person can fly it in the Control Room, and we are nearly there. 

Friday was the day to bring in a small group of Space Place student volunteers. Mark, Brandon, Nathan, and Jackson were called in to man the bridge.  Bracken, Parriss, Lajana, and I staffed the Control Room.  Supernova was the mission chosen to put the Voyager through its paces. We wanted to push the controls to the point of breaking. I ran the microphone and directed the mission while Bracken worked the flight computers changing this and tweeking that.  

Mark, Brandon, Nathan, and Jackson on Friday's shakedown mission
You couldn't find a better group of young volunteers on the planet!

The Voyager ran beautifully. The fine tuning was minimal and yes, that pesky Dr. Jenkins got aboard the ship once again despite security's best efforts.  The flight ended at the Cardilir Neutral Zone border to be picked up the following day with a larger crew.   

The Saturday Crew of Fantastic Space Place student volunteers

The Voyager Shakedown Mission continued Saturday at 3:00 P.M. with a larger crew of outstanding Space Place volunteers.  Renaissance Academy's students are excited to see the Voyager being made ready to open again and are ready to once again wear their Young Astronaut Club shirts.

Victor 

The Christa McAuliffe Space Center is Offering Virtual Planetarium Field Trips to Schools.

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The Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience