Galactica Roller Coaster Melds VR with Real Thrills

The Alton Towers adventure park in the UK has whipped up a new roller coaster that looks really cool. The coaster is called Galactica is being built using an existing flying-style coaster previously known as Air.

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Galactica is something different though. Passengers ride face down in the coaster and wear VR goggles on their heads the whole time. The goggles display video that has passengers traveling through galaxies on a space mission that’s synchronized with the turns and falls of the coaster.

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Like Air before it, the coaster will have three trains in use a time and each train holds 28 passengers. The track is 2,755 feet long and has a highest drop of 66 feet. Max speed reached is 47 mph with max g load of 3.5g.

This all sounds pretty awesome, though Alton Towers recently had one of their rides cause serious injuries to passengers due to operator error. I guess space travel is dangerous, even if you never leave planet earth.

[via BBC]