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USS Voyager

The Voyager is the first simulator constructed at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, UT. It was designed by Victor A. Williamson after he began student teaching at Central Elementary School, which is where the Space Center is located. He was looking for a new way to educate students about space and science, and started by turning his classroom into the bridge of a space ship from the future. The tools used to do this were very basic. For the space ship's controls, he used decorated pieces of cardboard complete with fake buttons and interfaces. The students loved the experience so much, that Williamson began doing what he called "missions" which were interactive choose-your-own-adventue stories told in the simulator. Then, he began doing these missions for other classes, as well as on Saturdays as part of a program called the Super Saturday. Eventually, he went to the school district and asked if he could build a space ship simulator onto the school. The district board was about to say no when Williamson added in that the school wouldn't have to give him any money for the project. Immediately, they agreed.

With this breakthrough, Williamson began construction on his first simulator. When is was completed, it was called the Pegasus, and flew missions using Macintosh Originals with the "stations" programmed in the earliest version of Hypercard, and the stations were controlled from the control room using a program called Timbuktu. Now, the Voyager's stations are programmed in a newer version of Hypercard (which is no longer made) and are controlled using an new program called Chicken of the VNC.

The Voyager currently fits a total of seventeen students for School Field Trips, twelve campers for Camps, and eleven participants for private missions. These private missions can range from 2.5 to 5 hours long.

The missions currently told in the Voyager are: Greenpeace, Intolerance, Supernova!, A Cry From The Dark, Midnight Rescue, The Children of Perekoi, Quarantine, A Matter of Honor, Shadows, The USS Canada, Epsilon, Event Horizon, The Grand Poopah, Silhouette, and The Fugitive.

The missions previously told in the Voyager are: Comet Trap, Mercy Strike, The Corridor, Norad, and The Plague.