The Looping Starship is a ride made by Intimin of Switzerland who are better known for their hyper coasters and rocket coasters. Basically the Looping Starship is a swinging ship type ride that can perform 360 degree loops. It’s also themed as a space shuttle…no surprise there. However there are other versions themed as boats, such as Southern Star at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. The ride is run by 4 large tire drives, like most swinging ships, only they are probably a bit more powerful since they need to swing the shuttle enough to make it complete a loop. Unlike a common swinging ship ride, the Looping Starship has a large counterweight at the opposite end.

The safety restraints on Looping Starship are about as overly cautious as you can get. The seats sport an odd shoulder harness that comes down to the rider’s chest, a bulky lapbar, and a seatbelt. This ride could probably get away with the lapbar and seatbelt alone; after all, the Huss Ranger only has a lapbar.

The Ride

The ride starts by swinging back and forth in attempt to complete a loop. The swings are very slow on the ride, I would guess due to the counterweight. Once the ship starts getting above 90 degrees, the direction changes start getting agonizingly slow; the ship practically pauses before swinging back down. The fun doesn’t stop there though! The first loop on the Looping Starship is always absurdly slow; the ship lurches through a loop and riders gets at least 10 seconds of hangtime. I’ve been on the ride when the shuttle just stops and changes direction before completing the loop which adds another 10 seconds to being stuck upsidedown. Once the ship gains enough momentum it’ll complete a few slow loops until it starts slow down, at which point riders get some more extended hangtime moments.

I always wondered what would happen if the ship actually got stuck upsidedown. I still don’t know the answer but maybe the hub at the center has the ability to mechanically turn a bit or something. Or maybe the ride ops would just get on the mic and tell riders to shake in order to shift the load a bit!

Other Info

At Six Flags Great Adventure, the Looping Starship sat dormant for a few years before operating again on a normal schedule. Unfortunately the ride was removed prior to the 2008 season; a shame since it’s such a unique ride. Previously the GAdv version had the word “Challenger” written on it before the Challenger disaster in 1986, at which point it was taken off. As a little side note, whenver I rode this I couldn’t help but think of the 80s song “We Built this City ” by Starship. Ha!

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