Euro-Mir is a spinning

Spinning roller coaster

A spinning roller coaster is a roller coaster with cars that rotate on a vertical axis.- Virginia Reel :The first spinning roller coaster was the Virginia Reel, first built in 1908 by Henry Riehl. Instead of trains, the ride had "tubs" with seats built around the perimeter facing inward...

 roller coaster

Roller coaster

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

 located at Europa-Park

Europa-Park

Europa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany and third most popular theme park resort in Europe. Having over 4.2 million visitors in 2009, it is the second most popular seasonal theme park in the world and is only behind the Tivoli Gardens and Disneyland Paris. Europa-Park is located in Rust,...

 in Rust

Rust

Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Unlike most spinning coasters, however, the cars do not spin freely, but are rotated by motors at set points during the ride. It was designed by Franz Mack and opened in 1997.

The experience is modeled on the Soviet/Russian space station

Space station

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

 Mir

Mir

Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

. It consists of five cylindrical towers, with the ride simulating a trip into space and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The largest tower, which contains the helical lift hill

Lift hill

A lift hill, or chain hill, is often the initial upward-sloping section of track on a typical roller coaster that initially transports the roller coaster train to an elevated point or peak in the roller coaster ride...

, is a dodecagon

Dodecagon

In geometry, a dodecagon is any polygon with twelve sides and twelve angles.- Regular dodecagon :It usually refers to a regular dodecagon, having all sides of equal length and all angles equal to 150°...

, 25 feet across and 92 feet high while the maximum drop of the ride is 86 feet. The ride opened in 1997 and carries 9 trains, each comprising 4 circular spinning cars. Riders are seated back to back in pairs, with a maximum of 16 riders per train.

External links

• Euro-Mir at the official Europa-Park website