Serpent (roller coaster)

Viper was a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. Manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf, the Looping Star model opened in 1989. It consisted of a single loop and was demolished with the closing of Six Flags AstroWorld on October 30, 2005. It had previously operated at Six Flags St. Louis, where it was known as Jet Scream from 1981 to 1988. An identical installation known as Silver Bullet still operates at Frontier City in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its paint scheme is different and the tunnel on the Silver Bullet surrounds the final turn as opposed to the drop hill.

Six Flags AstroWorld, also known simply as AstroWorld, was a seasonally operated amusement park in Houston, Texas. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was situated between Kirby Drive and Fannin Street, directly south of I-610. The park opened on June 1, 1968, and was developed originally and constructed as part of the Astrodomain, the brainchild of local philanthropist and former Houston mayor Roy Hofheinz, who intended it to complement the Astrodome. The Hofheinz family sold AstroWorld to Six Flags in 1978. Notable rides featured at the park included the Texas Cyclone, a wooden roller coaster built in 1976 that was modeled after the well-known Coney Island Cyclone, and Thunder River, considered the world's first successful river rapids ride when it opened in 1980. WaterWorld, an adjacent water park, was acquired and added to AstroWorld in 2002. Following declining revenue, rising property value, and other issues facing Six Flags, the company closed AstroWorld permanently after its final day of operations on October 30, 2005, the final night of Fright Fest. Many rides were sold at auction or relocated to other Six Flags' properties, and demolition of the remaining structures was completed by mid-2006.

Southern Star Amphitheatre was an amphitheatre located at AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. It opened in the southeast corner of the theme park in 1985. The venue was frequented by notable performers including The Beach Boys and Kansas. Prior to the Southern Star opening, concerts were held in the same area on a flat field with the stage at the east end. The Southern Star saw a decline in the number of top-billed acts when the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion opened in 1990. Reserved seating was available and a grassy lawn was provided to guests with general admission. The venue closed along with the theme park in 2005.

The Alpine Sleigh Ride was a dark ride located in the Alpine Valley section of AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. It was one of the original attractions of the park and operated from 1968 until the end of the 1983 operating season. Featuring a ride control system and vehicles (ArrowGlide) designed by Arrow Dynamics, the attraction's initial concept and design was by amusement park planner and architect Randall Duell. Duell’s company had been hired by Judge Roy Hofheinz to plan AstroWorld. The attraction took riders through an alpine themed forest before reaching the show building which was designed to resemble a large mountain capped with snow. The ride had elements of both a dark ride and a roller coaster. During the first part of the ride, the sleighs moved through a pine forest, past a towering waterfall, and into the “Der Hofheinzberg” mountain. The second half of the ride took riders through dark tunnels and icy caverns. A waterfall cascaded from atop the mountain and down into a catch pool below. After passing the waterfall, the sleigh themed vehicles entered the mountain's base and traveled through various chambers and tunnels inside. These included an echo-tunnel, an avalanche room with simulated snow, an appearance by an "abominable snowman" character, and a chamber themed with "Alpie" characters, among others. The avalanche room kept cooled down to approximately 10 °F (−12 °C) and contained an elaborate snow machine. This system was developed for the park by Carrier, the company responsible for Astroworld’s famous “outdoor air conditioning” in the park’s queues and other areas. In the Cold Room were two giant air curtains blowing down onto the track from above, one at the entrance of the room and one at the exit. After passing through the second level inside the mountain, the vehicles would exit and travel around the exterior of the mountain themed show building. Exterior features included the high bridge passing in front of the waterfall and a downhill canyon run. Vehicles were powered by an electrical bus bar along sections of track that ascended, and they were gravity powered along the descents which featured several surprise drops. Closed due to high maintenance costs in 1983, the attraction became part of the Enchanted Kingdom children's area, and later part of the Batman The Escape.

Rock The Bayou was a four-day rock festival celebrating the 1980s rock scene. From Houston, Texas the inaugural show took place from Labor Day weekend, August 29–September 1, 2008 on the 100-acre (0.40 km2) former location of Houston's AstroWorld theme park and featured a variety of musical acts from genres such as hard rock, heavy metal, glam metal, and classic rock. The festival had more than 100 bands confirmed, contrary to initial estimates that 40 bands would be playing.

Excalibur was a mine train roller coaster at Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. Built by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened in 1972 as Dexter Frebish's Electric Roller Ride, until the name was changed in 1980. At the time of its closure, it was the 2nd oldest roller coaster at the park after Serpent.

Sky Screamer was a first-generation Intamin Freefall ride at Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. Opening in 1983, the ride was closed and dismantled in the late 1990s.Sky Screamer consisted of a 131 feet (40 m) tower with a horizontal braking runout. It featured eight gondolas, each holding four riders.

XLR-8 (pronounced "accelerate") was a suspended roller coaster located at the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld. Manufactured by Arrow Huss at a cost of $3.2 million, the ride opened to the public in 1984, where it operated until the park's closure in 2005. It was one of Arrow's first attempts at producing a successful suspended coaster following troubles with The Bat at Kings Island, which operated briefly from 1981 to 1983.

Texas Cyclone was a wooden roller coaster at the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. Designed by Don Rosser and William Cobb, it was manufactured by Frontier Construction Company and opened to the public on June 12, 1976. Well-known for its airtime, the roller coaster was 93 feet (28 m) tall, 3,180 feet (970 m) long, and had a ride time of two minutes and fifteen seconds. Texas Cyclone was modeled after the original Coney Island Cyclone, which AstroWorld had originally intended to purchase and move to their park before realizing the process would be too expensive.

The NRG Arena (formerly the Astroarena and Reliant Arena), is a 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) sports center in NRG Park, in Houston, Texas, USA.

The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Presented by the Greater Houston Honda Dealers was an annual auto race on the IndyCar Series circuit. It was held in a street circuit located in downtown Houston for four years, then returned after a four-year hiatus for two years on a course laid out in the parking lot of the Reliant/NRG Park complex. Before resuming in 2013, the last race was held on April 22, 2007, (with the IRL merger canceling the 2008 event just two months prior to the event).

NRG Park, formerly Reliant Park and Astrodomain, is a complex in Houston, named after the energy company NRG Energy. It is located on Kirby Drive at the South Loop West Freeway (I-610). This complex of buildings encompasses 350 acres (1.4 km2) of land and consists of four venues: NRG Stadium, NRG Center, NRG Arena and the NRG Astrodome. The complex hosts many sporting events and conventions each year, the largest of which are Houston Texans home games, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The complex is served by the Stadium Park / Astrodome station, a light rail station on the Red Line of the METRORail light rail system. It also includes one of the world's largest parking lots (holding 26,000 total) and sees nearly 750 events yearly. Until 2005, the lot also served as a parking lot for Six Flags Astroworld, which has since closed. Since 2018, it served as the site of the Astroworld Festival, an annual music festival run by Travis Scott, which became the site of a deadly crowd crush in 2021.